Billionaire investor and philanthropist George Soros has invested $45 million USD into Activision Blizzard.
Reclaim the Net (citing Fintel) reports that Soros has purchased 758,000 shares for $45 million USD. Fintel states this occurred on February 14th.
Soros has been accused by some of using his fortune to manipulate international politics and economics. Soros is the founder of Open Society Foundations, and has also funded many efforts and organizations some deem to be liberal, Marxist, politically left, or globalist ideals.
These include accusations of aiding migrant and refugee caravans from Africa and the Middle East, supporting the US Democratic party during the 2016 US Presidential election, supporting pro-European Union efforts during the United Kingdom’s Brexit debates and elections, and supporting internet censorship under the guise of fighting hate speech.
Soros has also been accused of organizing protesters- such as those against the US Supreme Court nomination of Brett Kavanaugh, and the extreme right-wing and white nationalist protesters during the Unite the Right rally.
These claims have been rejected by the mainstream media, claiming they are right-wing conspiracy theories- with some based around antisemitism. [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8]. None of the accusations levied at Soros have resulted in legal charges or prosecution.
While the accusations levied against Activision Blizzard are more solid, they are still damning. Subsidiary Blizzard Entertainment has had nothing but bad PR over the last few months.
In January 2020, Warcraft III: Reforged‘s launch was nothing short of a disaster. Complaints arose within 24 hours of the game’s launch, and fans (who had their original copies of Warcraft 3 forcibly upgraded) campaigned to make the game the lowest-rated on Metacritic.
In October 2019, Blizzard had been denounced by many gamers over their suspension of pro-Hearthstone player Blitzchung for his support of the Hong Kong protests, firing the casters, and their overall handing of the entire debacle. Even US Senators wrote to Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick, condemning the decision.
As Reclaim the Net points out however, the disasters have not had any ill effect on Activision Blizzard’s stock price. According to Market Watch, Activision Blizzard (ATVI) was worth $51.95 USD per share. As of this time of writing, it is worth $60.71 USD per share.
Image: Wikipedia
