FTC Complains That Microsoft’s 1,900 Gaming Layoffs ‘Contradict’ What Was Said in Antitrust Trial
FTC Complains That Microsoft’s 1,900 Gaming Layoffs ‘Contradict’ What Was Said in Antitrust Trial
22 Comments
Shocker. Greedy money-worshipping company gonna greed and money-worship above ALLLLLLL things.
Yeah it’s not surprising, Microsoft aren’t known for looking out for people
*sad puppy dog eyes* 🥺 “Weeee promisssseeee this will benefit consumers and we will not punish the employeeeeeeesss”
Not that the layoffs aren’t shitty, but this is standard practice with any significant merger/acquisition. This honestly just seems like sour grapes from the FTC.
And I’m sure the FTC will have their top men going after them…
and there are some people that want Microsoft to buy more…
Tell that to epic who got a 1.5 billion dollar deal and laid off a bunch of employees
Based on the article, the issue seems to be that MS claimed that it would be able to easily divest the company if ordered, but cutting these jobs would make it much harder for Activation Blizzard to run as an independent company.
The 1900 is like 11% or so of the 17k employees, which is a big number, but AB should probably still be able to function if it gets divested. Seems like MS should have waited before everything is truly finalized.
Just want to add, that abk also hired 7000 extra staff during covid. That is an insane number and is unsustainable for any company to upkeep, especially after a merger. No doubt, even apple would have issues with that had they bought abk (which they weren’t going to anyway, this is only an example). That being said, layoffs suck but this probably won’t mean anything and won’t go anywhere. Ftc is just wasting tax payers money imo
Edit: if some people aren’t going to believe abk hired more staff during a pandemic, that’s fine. 7000 number was from a document from either ftc case or ms earnings report, think it was the latter, can’t remember. But if you are going to argue and ignore the fact that a large amount of companies hired more staff during covid, especially in the tech industry: i don’t want to argue b/c you’re not using actual logic. Even Walmart hired more staff and ms hired more during covid too
Insert Shocked Fry Futurama
All the concerned entitled gamers can pay the layoff peoples salary
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I blame Microsoft, Xbox at the end of the day is there bitch. They can talk about how they care about gamers and whatnot but Microsoft wants that money.
Guess the FTC should have done their jobs instead of thinking with their wallets.
I still don’t get the wanting more out of gamepass. Honestly the only good thing I can think gamepass has done is allow lower income families/areas access to amazing games.
Microsoft laying off 1,900 is a direct contradiction to the arguments they made in their antitrust filings.
That’s it. That’s the headline. If a journalist wrote this article that would have been the headline but a journalist didn’t write this…a bot did. The bot might be a human but in their role at their job they are simply placed there and expected to uncritically repeat press releases.
A journalist in tech with any scale would say that Microsoft a violent propaganda outfit with ties to a prominent human trafficking network and the entire board should be sanctioned along with the other oligarchs working against American interests.
Oh no. Anyway.
Can’t wait to see the next round of the FTC trying to protect Sony. Because they sure as fuck don’t work for the people.
FTC and MS aside, aren’t layoffs after a major acquisition/merger totally normal? Yes, it’s terrible for someone to be lose their job for something as arbitrary as that, but redundancies are going to get fixed in a huge company like MS.
I also don’t recall when MS said during the trial that they would be retaining all of the ABK employees, even if their roles were deemed redundant or otherwise unnecessary. If someone can provide a source that would confirm the FTC isn’t just blowing smoke is free to do so, I just don’t remember anything like that.
Yea because thats how mergers work. Is it that hard to understand the concept of redundancy?
Maybe they should have brought a real argument to the table to try to stop the merger then. “But they’re hurting Sony,” was all they had.
Microsoft has always been full of crap so this isn’t exactly news.
I want to be excited that someone at the FTC actually noticed this fucking bullshit, but I know absolutely nothing will happen and they will get away with this in the end. Microsoft’s lawyers will get a little money and that’s about it.