TikTok is in an exceptionally tough spot these days. Despite everyone you know using it for hours on end, the video-sharing app is currently facing legislation that would force its ban in the U.S pending a potential sale, and prospective buyers are lining up. One of these potential buyers is reportedly Bobby Kotick, the former boss of Activision Blizzard, according to the Wall Street Journal.
TikTok has been scrutinized for years by U.S. lawmakers who have argued that its China-based parent company ByteDance may share data it collects with the Chinese government, or that the app could serve as a propaganda delivery tool. Despite tensions ramping up some time ago, leading many to believe that the app would be banned in the U.S., matters had seemingly cooled until a bill was pushed through the House Energy and Commerce Committee last week, ratcheting up the pressure on ByteDance. The bill is expected to be reviewed and approved by the House of Representatives this week before being sent to the Senate, and President Joe Biden has already claimed he would sign off on a ban if the bill made it through legislation.
The bill requires that ByteDance “divest itself” of TikTok or see the app banned in the U.S., which has led to renewed interest from potential buyers, including Kotick. Kotick, according to WSJ’s sources, has floated the idea of a buy to ByteDance’s co-founder and is reportedly looking for partners, which could include Sam Altman of OpenAI. According to the Wall Street Journal, “OpenAI could use TikTok to help train its AI models if a partner such as Kotick could raise the capital for such an acquisition.” TikTok’s sale has been estimated to be in the range of “hundreds of billions of dollars.”
Kotick departed from Activision Blizzard late last year after completing the publisher’s $68 billion sale to Microsoft. Kotick’s tenure at Activision Blizzard spanned decades and came under fire in 2021, when the state of California filed a now-dismissed lawsuit following an investigation into allegations of sexual harassment and discrimination. Ultimately, California’s Civil Rights Department withdrew all allegations and claims relating to harassment and settled with Activision Blizzard in December 2023 for $54 million to resolve unsubstantiated pay and promotions claims.
The court-approved settlement included a statement that provided that:
“[N]o court or any independent investigation has substantiated any allegations that there has been systemic or widespread sexual harassment at Activision Blizzard; that Activision Blizzard senior executives ignored, condoned, or tolerated a culture of systemic harassment, retaliation, or discrimination; or that Activision Blizzard’s Board of Directors including its Chief Executive Officer, Robert Kotick, acted improperly with regard to the handling of any instances of workplace misconduct.”
In addition, the settlement noted that a former chair of the EEOC had conducted a review of the company’s policies, practices and certain complaint data and reported that there was no widespread harassment at the company. The company itself publicly released its Transparency Report, which further asserted that there was never been widespread or systemic harassment or gender pay inequity at Activision Blizzard.
Kotick departed with a golden parachute estimated to be worth around $15 million.
Updated: 04/01/2024, 2:00 p.m. ET: This article has been updated to include details of the CRD settlement, that Activision Blizzard denied any wrongdoing, and the settlement confirms CRD could not substantiate those claims.
Updated: 05/17/2025, 12:10 p.m. ET: This article has been updated to include additional language from the CRD settlement, and to include that as part of the settlement, the CRD withdrew the claims related to harassment from its complaint.
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