Activision Blizzard Fires CFO For Cause

Activision Blizzard announced today that they fired their Chief Financial Officer Spencer Neumann today for cause, meaning he did something to violate his employment contract. While some have speculated that Mr. Neumann is the fall guy for the company's recent missteps (Diablo: Immortal blowback), I suspect that its not related to that at all. The company's CFO doesn't make day to day decisions on product development.

The company specifically stated that Mr. Neumann's termination is "unrelated to the Company's financial reporting or disclosure controls and procedures," which leads me to believe that the termination is related to something else entirely. My guess is inappropriate workplace behavior, which has been a big theme over the last few years with the rise of the #MeToo movement. We'll likely find out more soon.

Activision Blizzard's stock price has fallen almost 50% from its October 1, 2018 high of $84.68 to $46.57 today. While the company has faced quite a bit of blowback from fans over Diablo: Immortal, the entire gaming sector has fallen quite a bit in the last few months with Electronic Arts down nearly 50% as well

Source: Yahoo Finance