The idea that Barry, his stepson, and friend David Geffen engaged in insider trading was denied by Barry.
The Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday evening that the stepson of the Diller family, Alex von Furstenberg, made large bets on the stock of the videogame maker just days before it agreed to be bought by Microsoft.
The value of those call options went up on public news of the deal.
In a statement to CNBC, which he confirmed to The Journal, Diller said, "None of us had any knowledge from any person or any source about a potential acquisition of Activision by Microsoft."
We acted because we believed that the company had the potential to go private or be acquired.
It's hard to believe that we would have traded it before Microsoft and Activision made their announcement.
It was simply a lucky bet, according to The Journal.
According to people familiar with the trades, the trio have an Unrealized profit of $60 million on the options trade, based on the recent share price of around $80.
The SEC and Justice Department are both looking into whether the options trades were in violation of insider-trading laws, according to the newspaper.
The SEC and Justice Department did not respond to CNBC's questions.
The son of the legendary fashion designer Diane von Furstenberg, Geffen and Von Furstenberg, did not respond to requests for comment.
Microsoft didn't comment. The company did not respond to the request for comment.
Coca-Cola has a board of directors.
Last week, Bobby Kotick said he would not be running for reelection as a director of Coke because he wanted to focus on the Microsoft deal.
Steve Kovach reports additional reporting.
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