Call of Duty maker Activision Blizzard had plans to lay off workers before its merger with Microsoft Corp, the tech giant said in a court filing last week. The software giant told the same to the US court replying to the laims by the Federal Trade Commission about the job cuts. In its letter to the court, Microsoft said that while some of the layoffs relate to overlap between its existing staff and Activision, the company continues to operate its newly acquired unit in such a way that it could be spun off if later required to by the court.
“Consistent with broader trends in the gaming industry, Activision was already planning on eliminating a significant number of jobs while still operating as an independent company,” Microsoft told a federal appeals court in San Francisco.“The recent announcement thus cannot be attributed fully to the merger.”
Last month, Microsoft announced internally that it was cutting about 8% of its games division’s 22,000 employees — that’s about 1,900 workers at Activision Blizzard, Xbox and ZeniMax. The FTC, which failed to block the Activision deal last year, said that those job cuts contradict statements Microsoft made that it would operate Activision independently.
Microsoft cuts 1900 jobs
Last month, the tech giant announced to lay off at least 1,900 employees from Activision Blizzard and Xbox, affecting around 8 per cent of the overall Microsoft gaming division that has some 22,000 employees.
Microsoft completed its $68.7 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard in October last year, after a long battle with regulators in the UK and the US.