Reuters
- Activision Blizzard has lost as much as $7.7 billion in market value since the company was sued by California for discrimination last Friday.
- Shares of Activision fell as much as 9% in Tuesday trades amid the ongoing fallout.
- 2,600 employees of the video-game company have signed a letter criticizing the company's response to the lawsuit.
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Shares of Activision Blizzard fell as much as 9% in Tuesday trades amid the ongoing fallout from a discrimination lawsuit filed against the company by California on Friday.
Since the lawsuit was announced on Friday, Activision Blizzard has seen as much as $7.7 billion erased from its market value.
The lawsuit against Activision Blizzard alleges equal pay violations, sex discrimination, and sexual harassment. The company "allegedly fostered a sexist culture and paid women less than men despite women doing substantially similar work, assigned women to lower level jobs and promoted them at slower rates than men, and fired or forced women to quit at higher frequencies than men," the lawsuit said.
Additionally, the lawsuit detailed allegations that women at Activision Blizzard were subject to constant sexual harassment, "including groping, comments, and advances."
Employees at Activision Blizzard are now planning a walkout for Wednesday, according to The Verge, and more than 2,600 current and former employees signed a petition calling Activision Blizzard's response to the lawsuit "insulting and abhorrent."
In Activision Blizzard's response to the lawsuit, the company called California's lawsuit, "irresponsible behavior from unaccountable State bureaucrats that are driving many of the State's best businesses out of California."
Employees in the walkout are issuing four demands, including an end to forced arbitration clauses in employee contracts, new hiring and promotion processes to increase representation, publishing salary and promotion data for all employees, and allowing a diversity, equity and inclusion task force to hire a third party to audit executive staff.
The weakness in Activision Blizzard's stock price has spread to its public video game peers, with Electronic Arts and Take-Two Interactive Software both falling 3% and 4% on Tuesday, respectively.
