Meet a Titan of Industry, Revisit a Lion of TV News
Cynthia Littleton
It was hard to take the measure of this week’s cover subject, Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick.
The company has been mired in controversy and investigations for several years over allegations that its offices were hostile places for women to work and that leaders turned a blind eye to sexual harassment. And soon it will be 18 months since Kotick cut a deal to sell Activision to Microsoft for $69 billion in cash. There’s no end yet in sight for the regulatory review process that has dragged on in the U.S., the U.K. and Europe.
Kotick is a master of networking, which has made him a well-known figure among showbiz movers and shakers. Even with Activision’s travails, he hasn’t been drummed out of the 1% club. He’s highly respected on Wall Street for having turned a nearly insolvent company in the early 1990s into a $70 billion gaming behemoth. Kotick had a lot on his mind for his first extensive interview in more than 10 years, and he didn’t hold back.
We also have an inside look at the documentary
Ramin Setoodeh
that amounts to a career reckoning for Dan Rather. Television editor Michael Schneider spent time with the legendary newsman in the Lone Star State in March, getting his reaction to an early screening of “Rather,” directed by Frank Marshall. It’s a warts-andall portrait that goes deep into the unpleasant business surrounding Rather’s departure from CBS News in March 2005, on the heels of his involvement in the “60 Minutes II” reporting debacle about then-president George W. Bush in September 2004. At the same time, there’s more to say about Rather’s 45 years at CBS News, and this documentary does just that. “They did him justice,” Rather’s daughter, Robin, tells Schneider of the film that bows next week at the Tribeca Film Festival.
Finally, for those who didn’t make it to the Cannes Film Festival this year, here’s your chance to take a mental vacation to the Côte d’azur. It starts by perusing the starry portraits captured at our Cannes photo studio. Beautiful people in a beautiful setting? What’s not to aimer?