Per The Wall Street Journal, three businessmen are reportedly under investigation for insider trading after buying a sizable investment in Activision Blizzard, acquiring a large amount of shares mere days before the news that Microsoft was purchasing Activision Blizzard.
Barry Diller, David Geffen, and Alexander von Furstenberg invested $108 million into the company before Microsoft’s monumental announcement in January. The initial investment from the three grew once the news went public, growing to $168 million and could continue to climb if the deal closes at $95.
Diller has served on the board of directors at Coca-Cola Co with Bobby Kotick for over a decade. Kotick recently announced he would step down from its board to focus on the situation at Activision.
The situation is currently being investigated by the US Justice Department as it looks to see “whether any of the options trades violated insider-trading law,” the report mentioned. The SEC is also investigating on the same suspicion.
In the same report, Diller said that “It was simply a lucky bet,” he said. “We acted on no information of any kind from anyone. It is one of those coincidences.”
