Tiktok is currently in an especially difficult place. Despite the proven fact that everyone knows that they use it for a lot of hours, the video sharing application is currently within the face of regulations that may force its ban within the US in anticipation of potential sales, and potential buyers are queuing up. One of these potential buyers is supposedly Bobby Kotick, the former head of Activision Blizzard, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Tiktok has been examined for years by American legislators, who argued that its Chinese dominant company Bytedance may provide data that collects the Chinese government or that the applying can function a propaganda delivery tool. Despite a while of tension, leading many to the conviction that the applying will likely be banned within the USA, matters seemingly cooled until the bill is pushed through the House Energy and Commerce Committee last week, raising his pressure on Bytedance. It is predicted that the bill will likely be reviewed and approved by the House of Representatives this week before sending to the Senate, and President Joe Biden has already claimed that he would have signed a ban if the Act had made the regulations.

The bill requires Bytedance to “deprive himself of” Tiktoku or see an application prohibited within the USA, which led to re -interest of potential buyers, including Kotick. Kotick, according to the sources of WSJ, raised the concept of ​​buying a co -founder of Bytedance and apparently in search of partners, including Altman himself from OpenAi. According to the Wall Street Journal, “Openai could use a thicket to help train his AI models if a partner like Kotick can raise capital for such a takeover.” Tiktok sales are estimated at “hundreds of billions of dollars”.

Kotick left Activision Blizzard at the top of last 12 months after the sale of the publisher $ 68 billion to Microsoft. Kotick’s term of office in Activision Blizzard lasted a long time and was under fire in 2021, when California filed a lawsuit on investigation regarding allegations of sexual harassment and discrimination. Ultimately, California Department of Citizenship withdrew all allegations and claims regarding harassment and settled with Activision Blizzard in December 2023 for $ 54 million to resolve unjustified claims regarding remuneration and promotion.

The settlement approved by the Court contained an announcement, provided that:

“(N) for a court or any independent investigation justified all allegations that in Activision Blizzard there is a system or universal sexual harassment; that the management of Activision Blizzard ignored, accepted or tolerated the culture of system harassment, retaliation or discrimination; instances of improper behavior in the workplace.”

In addition, the settlement noticed that the former chairman of EEOC conducted a review of company policies, practices and a few data regarding complaints and stated that the corporate was not universal harassment. The company itself publicly published its transparency report, which moreover stated that in Activision Blizzard there was never a typical or systemic harassment or sexual salary.

Kotick left with a golden parachute estimated at about $ 15 million.

Updated: 04/01/2024, 14:00 ET: This article has been updated to contain the main points of the CRD settlement that Activision Blizzard refused all offenses, and the settlement confirms that CRD cannot justify these claims.

Updated: 05/17/2025, 12:10 pm et: This article has been updated with a further language from the CRD settlement and to include this as part of the CRD settlement withdrew claims related to harassment from the criticism.

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