In response to the recent FTC complaint regarding the 1,900 Microsoft layoffs, the company now says that Activision was already planning these cuts before the merger took place.
If you missed it, the FTC hit Microsoft with an official complaint this week. The filing was sent to the Federal Appeals Court claiming that Microsoft went against its statement made in court about how it would run Xbox after acquiring Activision Blizzard.
Microsoft originally promised that Activision would operate individually. However, the layoffs speak otherwise. According to the FTC, the layoffs show the move was “inconsistent with Microsoft’s suggestion to this Court that the two companies will operate independently post-merger”.
VGC has received a statement from Microsoft in response to the FTC claims. According to the company, the FTC has been misleading with its complaint. Microsoft claims that Activision Blizzard was already planning to make large-scale layoffs even if the acquisition hadn’t been approved. Microsoft claims that job cuts have taken place across the entire industry as a whole.
“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. The recent announcement thus cannot be attributed fully to the merger.”
In another statement, Microsoft told VGC that the FTC is ignoring the fact that the deal has substantially changed since its original announcement. It also reminded the FTC that it lost in court back in July and that both Sony and Microsoft signed a binding agreement to keep Call of Duty on even better terms than Sony had before.
Since the FTC lost in court last July, Microsoft was required by the UK competition authority to restructure the acquisition globally and therefore did not acquire the cloud streaming rights to Activision Blizzard games in the United States. Additionally, Sony and Microsoft signed a binding agreement to keep Call of Duty on PlayStation on even better terms than Sony had before.”
Source: VGC
