It was updated on Mar 8, 2022, 10:36pm.
According to the Wall Street Journal, the Department of Justice and Securities and Exchange Commission are looking into whether moguls Barry Diller, Alexander von Furstenberg and David Geffen violated insider trading laws by buying options before the video game company announced an acquisition by Microsoft.
Inductee David Geffen attends the 25th anniversary of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Stephen Lovekin is the photographer.
According to the Journal, the three men purchased call options to buy shares of the company at a price of $40.00 on January 14, four days before Microsoft agreed to acquire the company for $92.50 per share.
The Journal reported that the trades by von Furstenberg and others resulted in $60 million in gains.
According to the Journal, the trades were reported to law enforcement by the men.
In a statement sent to Forbes through his media conglomerate IAC, Diller denied that he or the other men knew about the Microsoft-Activision purchase when they bought the call options, which are effectively bets that the share price will increase.
Neither Geffen nor von Furstenberg responded to the request for comment.
In a statement sent by IAC, Diller told Forbes that they had no knowledge of a potential acquisition by Microsoft. We would never have traded on that information if we had any.
According to Forbes, Geffen is worth $10.1 billion, while Diller is worth $4.4 billion. Von Furstenburg is the son of fashion designers Diane von Furstenberg and Prince Egon von Furstenburg, and he is a member of the IAC board.
In January, Microsoft unveiled plans to buy the gaming company, which makes popular games like Call of Duty and World of Warcraft, in an all-cash deal that valued the company at $68.7 billion. The SEC opened an investigation into the company's handling of harassment allegations last year, after employees reported widespread sexual harassment.
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