[Megathread] Activision-Blizzard Employee Moves

[solvexx]

Wait, it says he was fired for reason x. Well, that must be true then. No company has ever lied about such a thing.

Except there is evidence backing up their reason for firing him... Ie: going to Netflix instantly

[RoKPaNda]

I was SOOOO hoping this was them firing Ion. T.T

Yeah you were hoping they fired someone that actually cares about WoW. That makes a lot of sense. It doesn't take long for this community to turn on people. He's the one person I'd absolutely hate for them to fire because he actually cares about the game and the community and not just one portion of it.

[MrExcelion]

Trust me, next time I read any story involving Blizzard, I promise, I won't post a thing about it. I thought it might be interesting since, like it or not, it could have an effect on the Irvine Blizzard as well, or anything else Blizzrad releated, because whatever affects Activision Blizzard > could affect "Irvine" Blizzard > could affect we players of WoW. It was never meant as misleading. I had no idea I am supposed to put Activision in front of Blizzard every time I say Blizzard. Anyway, lesson learned.

yeah nothing personal really. someone else would have ran with the headline anyway if you hadn't

on another note now ign is using the story now too though theyre late to the party (8 hours ago posted): https://www.ign.com/articles/2019/01...declared-cause

anyway, on reddit i read this guy got like a 40 million welcome package or something. i'd say disgusting, but i mean this isn't out of the norm really i guess

[NED funded]

And you also misinterpret what I'm getting at. It's not about malice, it's about apathy. If the person whose job is to manage your multibillion dollar company's financial assets is on his way out the door, he's going to be less focused on his job and care less if he fucks up. It's not about preventing him selling company secrets or whatever. Securing computers for outgoing personnel is standard operating procedure at any company where personnel are assigned workstations with computers, partly to avoid losing company secrets but mostly just to make sure you didn't fuck up something important on your way out. Doing this takes time, and in the meantime the sooner it's done the sooner that computer can be reassigned to new personnel (there's a very good possibility Middle-Management Worker Drone A gets Executive B's repurposed work laptop once Executive B leaves, and if that happens you don't want Middle-Management Worker Drone A to have access to the company's financial assets through Executive B's leftover data).

This. People should look up the agency problem.

[netherflame]

its the job of the cfo to keep money coming into the company. its the job of content creators to make good use of their abilities to bring money into the company via content.

the cfo has exactly 0 to do with anything going on in game. EVER.

Except for that ya know budget piece....small potatoes I know.

[Thage]

Yeah you were hoping they fired someone that actually cares about WoW. That makes a lot of sense. It doesn't take long for this community to turn on people. He's the one person I'd absolutely hate for them to fire because he actually cares about the game and the community and not just one portion of it.

The only thing they really need to do with Ion is to get him away from cameras. The guy gives interviews like he's been called to the stand in a brutal court case with withering cross-examination. Hire a good PR guy who can get the point across without sounding like he's rehearsing legalese (which is something Ion may legitimately not be aware he's doing and is just used to it from years of lawyering; I used to work with a guy who got sick of being a professional asshole and quit lawyering, but had a habit of slipping into lawyerspeak when talking with us at work).

[bluspacecow]

ATVi is also in debt quite a bit to the tune of 2.5 billion . They have been paying that down as they were about 6 billion in debt in 2016. But 2.5billion is still a great deal of debt tobe carrying for a company that is suffering massive stock price loss and has no real new Ips in store

Debt which they could pay off at anytime by using their $3.43B worth of cash and investments. The $2.7 billion figure is Gross Debt not Net Debt. Their net debt is 0 and net cash $0.73B

- - - Updated - - -

If the guy was leaving for Netflix willfully, Blizzard wouldn't just terminate him so that they are now forced to pay him a $40 million severance package. That makes no sense whatsoever. Furthermore, the guy is apparently protesting his termination. He wasn't planning on leaving.

Need a citation on that. AKA What is your source ?

The SEC filing clearly says he is on "paid leave of absence from the Company pending an opportunity for him to demonstrate why cause does not exist to terminate his employment or why termination of his employment is not otherwise justified"

IE

1) There is no need for a severance package as he has yet to leave the company
2) He's being given the opportunity to defend himself (this is not the same thing as protesting it)

https://investor.activision.com/node/32146/html

[Low Hanging Fruit]

Did you even read the filing? It literally says he was fired for non-performance based issues. He was fired because he was shopping around for another job.

Your post is full of misleading and false information.

I didn't realize I was a news outlet. Second, do these people own your absolute trust? Third, does it matter that much to you?

Happy new year.

[Puremallace]

I would fire you too if I found out you had applied for a job somewhere else. he got hired by Netflix immediately so something tells me that is the real thing here.

[kamuimac]

I would fire you too if I found out you had applied for a job somewhere else. he got hired by Netflix immediately so something tells me that is the real thing here.

i can guarantee you that you wouldnt .

because the severance you would have to pay would be waaaay higher then what it would be worth .

[Armourboy]

What they owe him and whether he was terminated " with cause " will all come down to his contract with ATVI and what exactly they fired him for. We can speculate, but looking for another job may not be seen as a good enough reason to fire someone, in which case ATVI would still be on the hook for whatever his contract stipulates. We will find that out if he files a lawsuit against ATVI.

Odds are though if he did get a 40 million dollar package to join Netflix, that he won't bother, as part of that was to cover what he would lose from ATVI firing him.

[bluspacecow]

Netflix just confirmed they've hired him as their CFO -

https://media.netflix.com/en/press-r...ancial-officer

[MoanaLisa]

Netflix just confirmed they've hired him as their CFO -

https://media.netflix.com/en/press-r...ancial-officer

Seems likely now that all of this was choreographed so that ATVI could assure investors that the CFO position was covered. They couldn't very well announce a different CFO without saying something about Neumann. So they they terminated him for reasons other than what his fiduciary responsibilities covered, announced who would be taking over and markets can open today assured that the transition from one to the other was smooth. Seems to be a remarkable lack of drama going on with this other than here and on YouTube gaming sites where it's all "more there than meets the eye".

Thanks for the link. Apparently Mr. Neumann will now turn his talents to the business sector he had been working in for 20 years before joining ATVI. Someone was mentioning that a non-compete clause might have something to do with this. That seems possible although we're never likely to know for sure.

All the timing around January 1, 2019 is telling. Both ATVI and Netflix end their fiscal year on December 31.

[Nuggsy]

Sigh. Please do at least cursory wikipedia reading about ATVI and Blizzard Entertainment history before commenting. Finding out why isn't really rocket science.

Sigh. Please don't cite wikipedia as a reference for factual data. You know, something that can be edited by whoever. Also, real reasons aren't always published?

[bluspacecow]

Dennis Durkin confirmed as new CFO -

https://investor.activision.com/news...hief-financial

(For context the Sec filing seemed to indicate Durkin's appointment would be temporary until they could find a replacement. He is now the new CFO of Activision Blizzard)

Interesting spot quotes -

"In this role, Mr. Durkin will oversee Activision Blizzard’s finance, accounting, corporate strategy, financial planning & analysis (FP&A), investor relations, internal audit, tax and treasury, and IT areas of the business"

"Mr. Durkin replaces Spencer Neumann who was terminated for cause for violating his legal obligations to the Company."

"During Mr. Durkin’s tenure as Chief Financial Officer of Activision Blizzard, the company delivered strong financial performance, and a greater than 400 percent increase in the stock price during that time"

[Gadzooks]

Dennis Durkin confirmed as new CFO -

https://investor.activision.com/news...hief-financial

(For context the Sec filing seemed to indicate Durkin's appointment would be temporary until they could find a replacement. He is now the new CFO of Activision Blizzard)

Interesting spot quotes -

"In this role, Mr. Durkin will oversee Activision Blizzard’s finance, accounting, corporate strategy, financial planning & analysis (FP&A), investor relations, internal audit, tax and treasury, and IT areas of the business"

"Mr. Durkin replaces Spencer Neumann who was terminated for cause for violating his legal obligations to the Company."

"During Mr. Durkin’s tenure as Chief Financial Officer of Activision Blizzard, the company delivered strong financial performance, and a greater than 400 percent increase in the stock price during that time"

I'm sure most posters here, on other sites and on Youtube will read into this what they want it to mean, the most interesting part to me is:

"Mr. Durkin replaces Spencer Neumann who was terminated for cause for violating his legal obligations to the Company."

Like, not giving them proper notice that he'd accepted a job at Netflix, or was in negotiations? Sounds like he left ATVI hanging.

But, people want this to be negative for Blizzard, and a sign that Blizzard just wants to steal their money and ruin their game, so, whatevs. Trying to explain anything is pointless.

So, Durkin is the new boogeyman who's forcing Ion at gunpoint to make azerite armor and store mounts and everything you don't like about the game. Right? That's how it usually goes around here. Durkin is now the evil spawn of satan that's ruining your game. Any changes from now on are plots hatched by Durkin and Bobby Kotick to rip you off. Right?

[Nuggsy]

So don’t use wikipedia, you can go by SEC records too. But educate yourself a tiny little bit before posting, your ignorance is showing

Ohh got 'em

[btlcryct]

Blizzard CFO gone now too, to Square.

https://www.cnbc.com/2019/01/03/squa...s-new-cfo.html

[Gadzooks]

Blizzard CFO gone now too, to Square.

https://www.cnbc.com/2019/01/03/squa...s-new-cfo.html

More interesting than ATVI's CFO leaving, for sure. She's the one that the articles have said was going around telling people to cut costs. So I guess Brack will save money hiring a new CFO for a cheaper salary?

Two down, another data point. This is now of interest - she jumped from a large corporation to a much smaller one, after 8 years at ATVI. Tired of LA? Lured into the Twittersphere by Dorsey? Better pay? Dunno. She's young, she's got plenty of moves left in her career, so good for her.

I won't say the sky is falling, but two high level C execs leaving the same week is a big hit to ATVI. Let's see how this works for them, Cotton.

[Danvash]

The CFO is not responsible for game design. If you don't like BFA, Ion Hazzikostas is your man.

I doubt this will change anything at all for WoW.