Frances Townsend departed Activision Blizzard over the weekend, reported Bloomberg. Townsend served because the writer’s chief compliance officer, and her leaving comes as Microsoft is within the means of buying the Call of Duty writer. 

Townsend’s tenure with Activision Blizzard has been controversial since she took the position in 2020. Following a lawsuit in 2021 from the State of California accusing the corporate of fostering a poisonous setting for years, she despatched out a companywide inside e mail calling it “really meritless and irresponsible…We can not let it harm our tradition of respect and equal alternative for all staff.”

Shortly after, over 1,000 present and former Activision Blizzard staff condemned her response. In their listing of calls for, these staff known as for Townsend to resign from her place as the corporate’s Executive Sponsor of the ABK Employee Women’s Network. 

Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick later apologized for Townsend’s e mail, writing that it “lacked the correct empathy and understanding”.

In an e mail despatched to Bloomberg, Bobby Kotick wrote that Townsend “has achieved a unprecedented job enhancing the sturdy governance and compliance applications now we have all through the Company.”

Townsend shall be changed by senior ethics VP Jen Brewer and senior VP of company governance Luci Altman. She will function as an advisor to each the board and Kotick particularly.