Activision Blizzard (NASDAQ: ATVI) may be in the crosshairs of a political assault.
A bill was introduced in the Senate this week to explore the impact on violent video games and programs on children. This naturally comes on the heels of the dreadful Newtown school shooting.
Activision Blizzard's Call of Duty franchise is coming under fire as the top dog among combat titles.
The video game industry has enough on its plate as it is. Video game sales have been falling for the past three years. Activision Blizzard continues to set new industry records with every November installment of Call of Duty, but few other titles are selling as well.
Activision Blizzard would naturally have plenty to lose if the game is actually singled out as a cause for an uptick in violent youth. Activision Blizzard backers will argue that massacres and other rampages have existed long before the video game industry was even born.
We'll see how this all plays out, though investors are understandably nervous.
Briefly in the news
And now let's take a quick look at some of the other stories that shaped our week.
- SanDisk (NASDAQ: SNDK) became the latest tech company to beef up its buyback efforts. The flash memory giant boosted its repurchase authorization by $750 million. Let's hope it doesn't forget that it still has a lot of stock left to buy under its earlier authorization.
- Baidu (BIDU -0.72%) broke above $100 for the first time in three months during the week, but it didn't stick.
- Vringo (NYSEMKT: VRNG) isn't done milking its intellectual capital. Vringo provided investors with a summary of three motions that if filed against a few dot-com giants earlier this week.
