Monthly Archives: March 2022

Activision Says It Failed To Hire Another Woman For Its Board Due To Microsoft Deal Complications

Activision Blizzard claims that its violation of a California law that requires the company to have at least three women on its board of directors by the end of 2021 is due to complications with its upcoming acquisition by Microsoft, despite having three years to comply with the law.

First noticed by Axios, Activision Blizzard's annual report for 2021 includes an acknowledgment that it failed to comply with a California law that requires companies headquartered in the state with at least six members on their board of directors to include at least three women on their boards by the end of 2021. The company currently has two women on a board of ten.

Activision Blizzard attributes its failure to appoint a third woman to its board to its upcoming planned acquisition by Microsoft, which doesn't close until 2023.

"To meet this requirement and improve the diversity of our Board of Directors, the Company retained a search firm and began interviewing potential additional female directors in 2021. However, since the Company’s current directors would cease to continue to serve on our Board of Directors upon consummation of our proposed transaction with Microsoft, we were unable to conclude the process in 2021. We will be continuing our efforts to appoint a new female director."

Notably, however, Activision Blizzard has known it would need to comply with this law for some time. The law went into effect on January 1, 2019, at which time Activision Blizzard had two women on its ten-person board of directors: Reveta Bowers and Elaine Wynn. Wynn departed the board in 2020, at which time the company almost immediately appointed another woman, Dawn Ostroff, to replace her. The company has not appointed any other board members since Bowers' appointment in 2018.

Talks between Activision Blizzard and Microsoft began in mid-November 2021 — just three days after a Wall Street Journal report revealed that CEO Bobby Kotick knew about the sexual assault and misconduct allegations happening at the company, but did not disclose them to the board of directors.

The California law in question has resulted in a dramatic increase in women appointed to board seats in the state. In the two years before the law's enaction, only 208 women were newly appointed to board seats in California. In the two years after, 739 were appointed, and in the first quarter of 2021, women filled 45% of California board appointments.

This news comes while Activision Blizzard remains embroiled in a lawsuit from the state of California alleging the company fostered a "frat boy" culture in which women who worked there were subject to harassment, unequal pay, and a toxic working environment.

Activision Blizzard declined to comment further.

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Tom Hiddleston Calls Himself a ‘Temporary Torchbearer’ For Loki

Tom Hiddleston has been playing Loki for more than a decade now, starting with 2011's Thor and continuing to the Disney Plus series that debuted last year. His lengthy tenure in the Marvel Cinematic Universe has made him practically synonymous with the trickster god, but Hiddleston still sees himself as a "temporary torchbearer" for the character.

As reported by Variety, Hiddleston discussed his role in a lengthy panel discussion hosted by the Royal Television Society. Topics included the various Loki variants played by Sophia Di Martino, Richard E. Grant, and others, leading to Hiddleston's "torchbearer" comment.

"I'm a temporary torchbearer. I've always thought that," Hiddleston said. "It's a great role. It's an archetype, the trickster god, the agent of chaos. I'm just here interpreting that for the time being. Loki has been here for centuries and will be here for centuries more and I'm just stepping into that silhouette for now."

Hiddleston appears to be referring at least in part to Loki's role in the real Norse pantheon, which was famously appropriated for Marvel's Comics in the 1960s. Following Loki Season 1, Hiddleston said he was "open to everything" when it comes to playing Loki.

"I'm open to everything. I have said goodbye to the character. I've said hello to the character. I said goodbye to the character [again]. I've learned not to make assumptions, I suppose. I'm just grateful that I'm still here, and there are still new roads to explore," Hiddleston said at the time.

Looking back on the TV show, Hiddleston said he was drawn at least in part by its originality.

"This idea of somehow the [Time Variance Authority] confronting Loki with the shape-shifting nature of his identity and asking him 'Who are you?' I found it a new avenue to explore with this character I've been playing for a while," Hiddleston said. "It felt original. It didn't feel like we were repeating."

We praised Loki Season 1 in our review, saying that it managed to "overcome an uneven first half to become a great and exhilaratingly consequential season of television." Many of the key threads for MCU Phase 4 were established in Loki, including the multiverse and more.

Hiddleston talked about a breakfast he had with writer Michael Waldron about the character and the question about whether someone can truly change.

"Michael [Waldron] and I were having breakfast a couple of years ago when [he'd] written that first pilot and found ourselves talking about psychoanalytic theory and repetition compulsion and [the question of] can you ever change?” Hiddleston recalled. "Is it possible for people to change? Even if you do will people accept that you’ve changed? Is it possible to know yourself entirely?"

"And then Owen [Wilson] came and was so forensic about examining all of that stuff, and then we realized we were in a police detective thriller. When I was cast as Loki however many years ago, I never thought this character is a detective. But he is here."

Hiddleston is set to reprise his famous role in Loki Season 2, where he will star alongside Wilson, who will once again play Agent Mobius. In a separate interview, Wilson said that he expects production on Loki Season 2 to begin "pretty soon."

The next major MCU show is Moon Knight, which is set to premiere on March 30.

Kat Bailey is a Senior News Editor at IGN