Netflix has been sued again for poaching executives, this time by Activision Blizzard, over its hire of CFO Spencer Neumann.
In the lawsuit filed on Friday, Activision accuses Netflix of hiring Neumann as its CFO when he was less than two years into his contract. Neumann was hired as CFO by Netflix in January of 2019.
“Netflix unapologetically recruits talent without regard to its ethical and legal obligations. To shape its workforce to its desires, Netflix not only ruthlessly fires its own employees that it deems ‘adequate,’ but is engaged in a years-long campaign of unlawfully poaching executives from Netflix’s competitors regardless of their contractual obligations,” the lawsuit states. “In so doing, Netflix intentionally disregards well-established California law, including the California Labor Code itself, which expressly recognizes and permits the enforcement of employment agreements for a fixed term.”
It specifically accuses Netflix Co-CEO Reed Hastings of being directly involved in hiring Neumann away from Activision.
The streaming service did not immediately respond to TheWrap’s request for comment on the lawsuit.
Netflix has previously been sued, which lawsuit states as part of its argument, by ViacomCBS and Fox for the same thing. A judge ruled against Netflix in the Fox suit while the ViacomCBS one is still pending.
Pamela Chelin contributed to this story.
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