Activision’s Bobby Kotick could have been fired prior to Vivendi buyout

Time for some new boardroom intrigues.

Remember that deal Bobby Kotick finagled to take majority control over Activision? The one which dropped Vivendi’s stake from more than half down to 5 %? It turns out Kotick was facing trouble from Vivendi management behind the scenes.

Bloomberg reports that Vivendi was planning to fire Kotick prior to the buyout deal. This was revealed by a shareholder, who explained that Vivendi was unhappy that Kotick would not sign off to any sale of Activision by Vivendi that did not involve his investment group.

Kotick eventually brokered a $ 8.2 billion sale of Activision to his investment group at a pittance. Today, Kotick and Activision chairman Brian Kelly has to prove to the courts that they did not improperly benefit from the sale that did go through, in a way that put investors at a disadvantage.

What we knew in public was that Activision had been very successful financially while this was playing out, so who knew there was discontent in the inside? Expect this to play out even further in the coming months.