It is worth understanding that this is “different” than… all the other layoffs in tech at this point.
MS acquired ABK. Any acquisition almost always leads to “downsizing”. At a high level: ABK would have had their own payroll department. Now they go through MS payroll. Why do you need an entire department whose job is now superfluous? Obviously this gets a LOT more complex with developers and the like (as well as local management) but that is the mindset.
But… holy fucking shit that is a lot of people getting laid off at one of the worst times to be unemployed in “tech” in the past decade.
It is indeed a lot of people. A quick search says ABK employed 17,000 people. Laying over over 10% of your workforce is… intense, to say the least. Though, how much of that 1,900 is just from ABK is hard to say, so the percentage could be lower.
You’re right though; HR, payroll, legal, and social media/PR departments would definitely be among the first on the chopping block, depending on how much MS wants to integrate ABK into their existing departments.
There should be some sort of law that hits exec’s options, RSUs and bonuses if their financial for a business division aren’t total trash. Example, eBay, which grew and still laid people off.
That said, this one I kind of get. Mergers and acquisitions create literal redundancies. You end up with duplicates of people and departments.
It is worth understanding that this is “different” than… all the other layoffs in tech at this point.
MS acquired ABK. Any acquisition almost always leads to “downsizing”. At a high level: ABK would have had their own payroll department. Now they go through MS payroll. Why do you need an entire department whose job is now superfluous? Obviously this gets a LOT more complex with developers and the like (as well as local management) but that is the mindset.
But… holy fucking shit that is a lot of people getting laid off at one of the worst times to be unemployed in “tech” in the past decade.
It is indeed a lot of people. A quick search says ABK employed 17,000 people. Laying over over 10% of your workforce is… intense, to say the least. Though, how much of that 1,900 is just from ABK is hard to say, so the percentage could be lower.
You’re right though; HR, payroll, legal, and social media/PR departments would definitely be among the first on the chopping block, depending on how much MS wants to integrate ABK into their existing departments.
Finance too. They’re almost always first from the multiple I’ve personally been through. The new owners want those hands out of the pot asap.
Also considering the apparent toxicity of certain Blizzard employees it’s probably a good opportunity to “purge” the Kotic gang and his following.
So that’s a dozen people. 1900 is more than a hundred times that. (#mathFTW)
These cuts will seriously hurt product.
Also, I sense my less-than-new windows version will be unsupported; and I only had it so the one game ran better.
Blizzard Products were polished turds.
They need a huge cultural shift and I’m all for it.
Yeah, it’s brutal out there right now. Reminds me of 2008 or 2000.
Similar to 2008 but the 1% found out a way to keep their wealth intact while still fucking everyone else over.
In 2008, those responsible got the rest of us to bail them out and give billions in bonuses.
There should be some sort of law that hits exec’s options, RSUs and bonuses if their financial for a business division aren’t total trash. Example, eBay, which grew and still laid people off.
That said, this one I kind of get. Mergers and acquisitions create literal redundancies. You end up with duplicates of people and departments.
Hence why acquisitions need more scrutiny. It literally kills jobs.
This is GOOD for bitcoin!