Activision Blizzard has issued a new statement following its recent restructuring and layoffs. The publisher laid off around 800 employees earlier this month. At the same time, Activision announced that it had achieved record results for the fiscal year.
In a new statement (via industry analyst Daniel Ahmed), a Form 10-K from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, Activision detailed a variety of risk factors facing the company following the restructuring:
“We may not realize the expected financial and operational benefits of our recently announced restructuring plan, and its implementation may negatively impact our business.”
Activision has admitted that the restructuring may not have the desired effect, and could end up putting the company in worse shape. According to the publisher, most of the employees laid off earlier this month were not in game development departments. The effected departments were largely publishing and esports, following Bungie’s split that took Destiny with it and the Blizzard’s shift away from Heroes of the Storm esports.
“Further, there can be no assurance that our business will be more efficient or effective than prior to implementation of the plan [restructuring], or that additional restructuring plans will not be required or implemented in the future. The implementation of this restructuring plan may also be costly and disruptive to our business or have other negative consequences, such as attrition beyond our planned reduction in workforce or negative impacts on employee morale and productivity, or on our ability to attract and retain highly skilled employees. Any of these consequences could negatively impact our business.”
The statement appears to suggest that Activision laid off hundreds of employees while knowing full-well it could negatively impact their business. SEC’s Form 10-K is filed yearly, and much of the same language regarding risk factors for the publisher were retained from the 2018 filing. Regardless, Activision is aware that its restructuring might not end up helping the company in any way. That might not be a great thing to admit to when the publisher just laid off around 800 people.
