Microsoft layoffs "contradict" what was said in Activision antitrust trial, FTC claims

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 and Warzone fans can now claim the Saddle Up bundle for free, given that they're subscribed to Amazon Prime. Over recent months, Prime Gaming has given Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 fans an assortment of extra rewards, in addition to in-game bonuses in other titles.

Phil Spencer has gone on record on why Microsoft Gaming suddenly fired 1,900 of their own employees after the Activision Blizzard King merger was finalized months earlier.

The video game industry has never been known for its job security. Game development works in cycles, and when games are released and projects end, people are often laid off. When the next project starts, hiring begins once again only for another potential cut down the line. It was hard for video game developers to feel comfortable in their positions before the most recent period of unprecedented instability. But over the past few years, it’s become a downright crisis.

With video-game players increasingly sticking with the titles they've been hooked on for years, leaders in the $184 billion industry are cutting thousands of staffers and canceling riskier projects.

Our solar system is full of secrets that are yet to be discovered. While astronomers and space agencies are hard at work studying the universe, the findings from these missions are put under the scanner by researchers to develop possible theories and find whether there is any chance of life existing on these planets if water is present there. Now, researchers have made a disappointing finding. They have reported that Saturn's moon Titan is quite uninhabitable despite being called an ocean moon. Researchers claim that the moon does not have the right organic chemistry which is required to support life. Know why Saturn's moon Titan cannot support life.

So, to say that the Xbox event that dropped today was “eventful” might be a bit of an overstatement for various reasons. One of those reasons is that nothing significant was truly revealed on the gaming side, and despite all sorts of “the sky is falling” statements about Microsoft going third-party, it didn’t happen. All Microsoft stated was that they wanted to “test the waters” by having certain titles go multi-platform despite being exclusive in the past, which is something numerous titles have done across several publishers. However, lost within that indecisiveness was a small glimmer of information that highlights the future of the company’s console brand.

In case you missed it, Microsoft made an industry-shaking acquisition at the tail end of last year, buying up Activision Blizzard King for an eye-watering $69 billion. It took a long time to close, though, because of intense scrutiny from a handful of different sources — one of those being the USA's Federal Trade Commission (FTC). Now, in the wake of Microsoft cutting thousands of jobs, the FTC is back on the company's case, accusing it of contradicting statements made in court about how the business would operate post-acquisition.

Have you suffered an “involuntary career event” recently? Perhaps you were a casualty of “corporate outplacing,” the unfortunate, yet ostensibly necessary result of your company “rightsizing.” Managers are running out of ways to say you no longer have a job. Layoffs in the first month of 2024 have left tens of thousands without jobs, with the tech industry alone cutting 32,000 roles. The way the bad news is delivered is more important than ever, as companies fear being canceled on social media after a poorly executed final conversation. Executives are using all kinds of euphemisms to avoid being straightforward with their employees.

Today, the US Federal Trade Commission criticized Microsoft for its plans to lay off 1,900 employees in the wake of its Activision Blizzard acquisition. Now, Microsoft has issued a response, saying that these layoffs "cannot be attributed fully to the merger," especially because Activision Blizzard already planned on eliminating a lot of jobs before the deal went through.

Microsoft completed its $69 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard in October, though life under new ownership has got off to a rough start for the latter. Last month, Microsoft announced that it was cutting 1,900 jobs across its entire gaming division, with Activision Blizzard, Bethesda, and Xbox all set to be impacted.

Microsoft has rejected the Federal Trade Commission's recent complaints about the mass layoffs at Activision. The regulator previously argued that the move could be used as the basis for reversing Microsoft's acquisition of Activision Blizzard, which was completed in October 2023.

Microsoft has defended claims made by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) that its plans to lay off around 1,900 members of its gaming staff contradict “representations it made” during the fight to acquire Activision, and stated that Activision was already planning “significant” staff cuts.