— Jason Schreier (@jasonschreier) December 19, 2022 Daniel Alegre, Activision’s current president and COO will step down from his position at the end of March 2023 when his contract expires. Daniel Alegre is departing the firm, according to a recent 8K filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission, for “another opportunity” overseas. Although there is no official statement on the cause of this breakup of the partnership, it appears to be a business shake-up prior to the finalization of Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision-Blizzard. He will work until the conclusion of his current contract, which expires on March 31, 2023. Just to let you know, at the time of this writing, no successor has been identified. In 2020, Alegre left as president of worldwide retail and commerce at Google and joined Activision Blizzard. Activision Blizzard has had several difficulties during Alegre’s time as president and COO of the company, including many government lawsuits over claims of toxic workplace behavior and civil rights legislation transgressions.
The Microsoft Activision Deal Is Still At Risk Following the Pending Decisions of Regulators
However, the $69 billion merger still faces tough obstacles as Sony tries to convince American and European regulators to block the deal. A thorough examination of the agreement was started after the UK’s competition commission voiced worries about the lack of competition if the acquisition went ahead. The European regulator experienced the same issue, and they will further examine the outcomes of the agreement before approving it. On the other hand, the US FTC said that it would sue Microsoft to prevent the tech giant from acquiring Activision-Blizzard, claiming that Microsoft may make several high-profile triple-A titles, including Call of Duty, World of Warcraft, and Diablo, exclusive to Xbox. Before the FTC sued Microsoft, Xbox CEO Phil Spencer repeatedly affirmed that there were no intentions to turn Call of Duty into an exclusive game following the purchases. Microsoft even made an effort to make concessions to Sony so that the Call of Duty series would continue for ten years on PlayStation systems without any access restrictions or content restrictions. While reports claimed that the FTC might accept the transaction by accepting concessions from the company, the watchdog ultimately filed a lawsuit against Microsoft. Phil Spencer even stated that plans exist to bring the Call of Duty series to Nintendo. Saudi Arabia, Brazil, and Serbia have all granted Microsoft three permits for the transaction thus far. To close the purchase, the corporation will require at least 20 approvals, and the regulators in the UK, the US, and the EU regulators will significantly impact how this massive transaction turns out.
