Activision's Call of Duty Endowment and Bobby Kotick Honored with $250,000 Gift from the Microsoft® Stores

Donation will aid veterans in their post military career search and provide funding for the Endowment

WASHINGTON, June 30, 2011 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The Call of Duty Endowment announced today that the organization and its founder, Bobby Kotick CEO, Activision Blizzard, Inc. (Nasdaq: ATVI) were honored with a donation of $250,000 from the Microsoft® Stores to help veterans find job placement in their post-military careers.  The gift, which included a $225,000 software grant and a monetary donation of $25,000, was announced at the grand opening of the newest Microsoft® Store in Los Angeles, CA.  

Founded by Bobby Kotick, the Call of Duty Endowment, a non-profit organization, seeks to raise awareness for the issue of veterans' unemployment, and provides grants and resources to organizations that provide job placement assistance and career training to returning veterans.  As such, the software donated by the Microsoft® Store will be distributed to several organizations that the Endowment works with, including: AMVETS; National Veterans Transition Services, Inc.; Still Serving Veterans; Wounded Warrior Project; Hire Heroes USA; and Veterans Green Jobs, among others.   The Endowment identified the groups based on their work in providing career training and educational services to veterans from across the country.

On behalf of the Call of Duty Endowment, Bobby Kotick expressed his gratitude for the gift, "I am thrilled to accept this gift on behalf of the Endowment and those veterans who proudly served in our military.   As business leaders, we have a responsibility to ensure that every veteran who leaves the military is honored with a good paying job in the 21^st Century. I hope that more companies will step forward to help us in this fight, just as Microsoft has done today."

According to a recent report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, male veterans between the ages of 18-24 struggle with an unemployment rate of nearly 22 percent, and women veterans in the same age range experience an unemployment rate of over 15 percent.

Since Activision Blizzard, Inc., the worldwide online and console video game publisher and producer of the Call of Duty® video game established the Call of Duty Endowment in November of 2009, it has delivered more than $1,000,000 in grants and scholarships to assist returning veterans with post military career help.  This past November, Activision committed another $1 million to the Endowment and pledged to find 1,000 jobs for veterans.

About the Call of Duty Endowment:

The Call of Duty Endowment is a non-profit, public benefit corporation created by Activision Blizzard. The organization seeks to help soldiers transitioning to civilian life find work and establish careers and to assist organizations that provide job placement and training. For more information about The Call of Duty Endowment, please visit www.callofdutyendowment.org.

SOURCE Call of Duty Endowment

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