Job Well Done: Activision on the Cusp of Acquiring a Plethora of Microsoft Staff

From the Microsoft case, where 1,900 game business employees were laid off, there is an interesting issue regarding the large number of Activision Blizzard employees who were let go. This has led the FTC, the US competition agency (who lost the initial court case but the entire legal process is not yet finished), to file an additional motion in court. They are using this case of employee layoffs as evidence to undermine the argument that this merger has had a negative impact. It highlights that a significant number of employees have been terminated.

Microsoft’s lawyers are fighting back by arguing that Activision Blizzard had planned to lay off employees even before the merger was completed. The recent round of layoffs was not a result of post-merger decision-making.

TLDR: In the aftermath of Microsoft’s acquisition of game business employees, the FTC is seizing the opportunity to challenge the merger’s impact, using the substantial number of employee layoffs at Activision Blizzard as evidence. However, Microsoft counters by asserting that these layoffs were pre-planned and unrelated to the merger.