Activision Blizzard (NASDAQ:ATVI) said it’s aiding federal authorities probing insider trading activity inward the picture mettlesome publisher’s equity and derivatives prior to a January takeover offering past Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT). MGM Resorts International (NYSE:MGM) investor Barry Diller and his associates weren’t mentioned by the Call of Duty producer.

In amended 8-K filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Activision says it received a voluntary petition for information from the military commission and grand panel subpoena ad testificandum from the Department of Justice (DOJ).

Both of which come out to relate to their respective investigations into trading past 3rd parties — including persons known to Activision Blizzard’s CEO — in securities prior to the declaration of the proposed transaction. Activision Blizzard has informed these authorities that it intends to follow full cooperative with these investigations,” according to the filing.

While Diller isn’t direct mentioned in the filing, he, his stepson Alexander von Furstenberg, and entertainment mogul Saint David Geffen are beingness investigated past the DOJ and the SEC regarding options trades they made on Activision prior to news of Microsoft’s $68.7 billion all-cash takeover beseech seemly public.

IAC/InterActiveCorp (NASDAQ:IAC) Chairman Diller dismissed the options trades as lucky bets, but the Wall Street Journal reported last-place month that von Furstenberg met with battlemented Activision CEO Bobby Kotick prior to the release of the takeover news.

Diller MGM Ties

To date, the gambling casino companion hasn’t commented on the investigation.

Diller’s IAC took a 12% stake, and so valued at $1 billion, in MGM Resorts inward August 2020. As a percent of MGM shares outstanding, IAC is by far the casino operator’s largest shareholder. For now, it appears the options trading investigating testament make no more wallop on IAC’s relationship with the gaming company.

Last month, the Sagebrush State Gaming Commission (NGC) said it will postponement licensing Diller, 80, pending into an enquiry by the NV Gaming Control Board (NGCB) into the options trading issue. Diller and IAC CEO Joey Levin are both members of MGM’s board.

With Activision, Controversy Abounds

Microsoft moved on Activision after the video game publisher’s gillyflower slid inward the backwash of an investigation past the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing (DFEH), which alleges Kotick unheeded several years worth of sexual molestation claims at the company.

The controversy doesn’t remnant there. Last week, Bloomberg reported that Melanie Proctor, DFEH assistant chief counsel, resigned followers the firing of DFEH Chief Counsel Janette Wipper. Proctor alleges Gov. Gavin Newsom’s (D-CA) office interfered with the DFEH investigating to the aide of Activision attorneys. The governor’s office denies the claims.

On another note, Robert Penn Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Anne Hathaway bought 14.6 million shares of Activision inward the fourth quarter, inwards progress of the Microsoft takeover news, but the famed investor’s conglomerate has not been the subject of any regulatory scrutiny for that trade.