Activision Blizzard Expected to Lay Off Hundreds Tuesday

Published: February 8, 2019 10:32 PM /

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Activision-Blizzard

Update February 12th: The axe has dropped, and now it is known that Activision Blizzard lays off 8% of its workforce.

Original Story Below

While EA's stock is skyrocketing after the launch of the successful Apex Legends, Activision Blizzard, another huge publisher in the industry, is having less of a pleasant time on the stock market.

Bloomberg announced yesterday that Activision Blizzard layoffs are expected to result in the firing hundreds of employees on Tuesday. Christopher Palmeri of Bloomberg wrote that these expected layoffs will be for "centralizing functions and boosting profit." On Twitter, Kotaku reporter Jason Schrier backed up the report saying that it has been expected for months.

Activision Blizzard's stock is taking a continuous nosedive since October. With the reveal of Diablo Immortal and BlizzCon failing expectations, as well as the firing of important figures like former CFO Spencer Neumann, things have been very rocky for this huge publisher.

On January 1, 2019, TechRaptor reported that Activision Blizzard stock peaked in 2018 at around $83 USD, but fell to $46 USD when the article was written. The stock has continued to trickle down gradually and is at $43 at the time of this writing.

To make matters worse for the publisher, Swedish company King, which is owned by Activision, could be fined nearly $390 million USD. Gameindustry.biz reports that because the mobile game developer was acquired by Activision Blizzard, the IP rights became part of the publisher. This caused Sweden to lose the equivalent of $390 million in Swedish currency.

Activision Blizzard isn't the only big name ailing. Take-Two, despite the huge success that was Red Dead Redemption, is seeing its stock fall. It's not just Activision Blizzard, but with these expected firings on the way, things aren't looking too great.


Quick Take

It's always disheartening to see jobs being cut, no matter what you think of a company. I think that Activision Blizzard's woes are very interesting though. We see Call of Duty as some insurmountable franchise that, despite backlash, keeps pumping out money for the company. With job cuts there could be more profits on the way for the company if cutting its workforce doesn't impact revenue. There's also going to be several big releases this year such as Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, the yearly Call of Duty entry, and Blizzard's projects. It'll be interesting to see how, or if they can recover.

What do you think about the expected Activision Blizzard layoffs? Do you think they are having financial difficulties? Let us know in the comments below!

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austin
| Staff Writer

Austin cut his teeth writing various  fan-fiction stories on the RuneScape forums when he was in elementary school. Later on, he developed a deep love for… More about Austin