US Department of Justice and the Securities and Exchange Commission are reportedly investigating three Activision Blizzard shareholders over alleged insider trading.
US federal prosecutors and securities regulators are reportedly investigating media moguls David Geffen, Barry Diller, and Alexander von Furstenberg over alleged insider trading. As reported by the Wall Street Journal, the businessmen bought a large quantity of Activision Blizzard shares shortly before the video game company announced it was being acquired by Microsoft.
It is said that the traders bought options to purchase 4.12 million Activision shares for around $108 million. In accordance with recent trading prices, the options are currently valued at around $168 million. According to Diller, the businessmen didn’t have prior knowledge of the upcoming deal. He also confirmed the investigation by the US Department of Justice.
All three businessmen have links to Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick. Diller previously served on Coca-Cola's board of directors alongside Kotick and described the Activision CEO as "a long time friend". David Geffen is one of Diller's close friends who used to work together with him at talent agency William Morris, and, finally, Alexander von Furstenberg is Diller's stepson.
Apart from the DOJ that is currently examining "whether any of the options trades violated insider-trading law", the Securities and Exchange Commission is carrying out a separate civil insider trading investigation.
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