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Activision-Blizzard Senior Management restructure

Forum Index > General Forum
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pat965
Profile Joined April 2009
Canada274 Posts
Last Edited: 2010-04-01 06:41:51
April 01 2010 03:08 GMT
#1
Link Here

Article Here:
+ Show Spoiler +
Activision quietly restructures senior management and internal organization [Updated]
March 30, 2010 | 11:32 am
The nation's largest video game publisher has restructured its senior management team and internal organization without telling investors or the public.

As outlined in internal memos obtained by the Times, Santa Monica-based Activision Blizzard Inc. has divided itself into four units, with one focused on the military video game Call of Duty, another handling other internally owned properties such as Guitar Hero and the Tony Hawk skateboarding games, and a third handling licensed properties. Blizzard Entertainment, maker of the successful online game World of Warcraft, remains an independent unit.

Mike Griffith, who formerly oversaw all of Activison's publishing business outside of Blizzard, has been named vice chairman, a role in which he serves as advisor to company Chief Executive Bobby Kotick. Thomas Tippl, formerly chief financial officer and chief corporate officer, has been named to the newly created role of chief operating officer. He is now the only executive reporting directly to Kotick and oversees Blizzard President Mike Morhaime and the head of Activision publishing, a role he is also filling on an interim basis.

The changes come as Activision Blizzard is coming off the blockbuster success of November's Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, which has generated more than $1 billion in sales, but has seen sales of its music franchise Guitar Hero plummet. It's the first major shakeup for the company since Activision merged with Vivendi Games in 2008 to create Activision Blizzard.

The internal shakeup was announced in e-mails sent to employees last week, but has, for the most part, not been publicly announced. Tippl's promotion was noted in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing last Friday. The company's website for investors still lists the previous management roles.

Spokespersons for Activision did not respond to requests for comment.

Tippl has been Activision's CFO since 2005 and chief corporate officer since last year. He previously served as head of investor relations and finance director for consumer products giant Procter & Gamble. Griffith, another P&G alumnus who joined Activision at about the same time as Tippl, is shifting to the vice chairman role that has been empty since Bruce Hack left the company last year.

"This is an important change as it will allow me, with Thomas, to become more deeply involved in areas of the business where I believe we can capture great potential and opportunity," Kotick said in the memo to employees.

Activision already announced the new unit dedicated to Call of Duty games in early March, soon after Jason West and Vince Zampella, heads of the studio that created the series, left amid a dispute with the publisher that led to a $36-million lawsuit.

A new unit that will oversee all licensed games is being led by Dave Oxford, head of the company's Minneapolis office that previously oversaw low-budget "value" titles. Though Activision recently ended a deal to make games based on DreamWorks Animation movies, it still has the license to several top Marvel characters such as Spider-Man, the X-Men and the Transformers.

Maria Stipp, executive vice president of owned properties, is now overseeing all internally owned titles besides Call of Duty and the ones made by Blizzard. In addition to managing Guitar Hero, Call of Duty and other existing properties that have seen sales decline recently, she will be charged with fostering new brands that Activision hopes will drive its growth in the future, such as the upcoming racing title Blur.

[Update, 11:43 a.m.: An Activision spokeswoman confirmed the changes and said there were also about 15 layoffs last week.

"We realigned our structure to better reflect our slate and marketing opportunities and direct our resources against the largest most profitable business segments," said spokeswoman Maryanne Lataif.]

-- Ben Fritz


In a nutshell, as of roughly last week, there is someone (Thomas Tippl) at Blizzard, above Morhaime, who directs directly to Kotick. Also there were 15 layoffs last week. Despite this, it says that "Blizzard Entertainment, maker of the successful online game World of Warcraft, remains an independent unit", but I'm not sure to what degree this is true

So, I'm quite worried, given how Activision handled their Call of Duty franchise (dismissal of Zampella and West i.e. main COD4 guys). The quote by Tippl also worries me, stating that he'll be "deeply involved in areas of the business where I believe we can capture great potential and opportunity".

Normally I try to be level-headed, and I don't like to cry that the world is ending. However, given Activisions track record, I'm fairly uncomfortable about this.

(Note: Not an April Fools joke. It'd be an awful joke, and the story was reported on March 30th)

Edit: So as far as I can tell, since Vivendi owns 52% of Activision-Blizzard, this won't result in any sort of significant changes. I'll always worry about minor things, but hopefully my fears were for nothing. Also, as someone pointed out, all that is essentially happening is that another layer is being added between Morhaime and Kotick, which seems to be a good thing.
hi
FragKrag
Profile Blog Joined September 2007
United States11552 Posts
April 01 2010 03:09 GMT
#2
o_o

I read this on Fudzilla today, but I didn't really give it much thought because Blizzard remains independent.
*TL CJ Entusman #40* "like scissors does anything to paper except MAKE IT MORE NUMEROUS" -paper
pat965
Profile Joined April 2009
Canada274 Posts
April 01 2010 03:15 GMT
#3
The involvement of Tippl raises questions on their independence though
hi
avich
Profile Joined March 2010
Philippines11 Posts
April 01 2010 03:15 GMT
#4
more like a Activision-Blizzard take over. Im gonna bet that the single player will have DRM protection and will require constant internet connection
Eat SciiLaw
{CC}StealthBlue
Profile Blog Joined January 2003
United States41117 Posts
April 01 2010 03:21 GMT
#5
So I guess Microtransactions are not far away?
"Smokey, this is not 'Nam, this is bowling. There are rules."
hacpee
Profile Joined November 2007
United States752 Posts
April 01 2010 03:32 GMT
#6
April 1st. Don't take anything seriously.
Zona
Profile Blog Joined May 2007
40426 Posts
April 01 2010 03:33 GMT
#7
Mike Morhaime (Blizzard) reports to Thomas Tippl who reports to Bobby Kotick. There's no denying the chain of command there.

However, Vivendi, as of last filing (in late 08), owns over 700mil of ATVI's 1.25 bil shares, so they still pretty much exercise control over Blizzard. While it would probably never get that far, if Vivendi ever truly truly dislikes what Activision is doing, can call a shareholder's meeting, replace the directors, then have the new directors bring in new executives.

I do think Blizzard is absorbing some consumer-unfriendly ideas from the rest of Activision, though.
"If you try responding to those absurd posts every day, you become more damaged. So I pay no attention to them at all." Jung Myung Hoon (aka Fantasy), as translated by Kimoleon
pat965
Profile Joined April 2009
Canada274 Posts
April 01 2010 03:37 GMT
#8
On April 01 2010 12:32 hacpee wrote:
April 1st. Don't take anything seriously.


Well, the story was actually reported on March 30th... Also, if this were a joke, the implication would be that it's a joke because Activision is horrible... nobody wins
hi
AlTheCake
Profile Blog Joined October 2008
Canada1071 Posts
Last Edited: 2010-04-01 03:39:37
April 01 2010 03:38 GMT
#9
On April 01 2010 12:32 hacpee wrote:
April 1st. Don't take anything seriously.

I was just going to say this.

I honestly won't believe much for the next 48 hours, unless it's a breaking news story on TV or something ><

On April 01 2010 12:37 pat965 wrote:
Show nested quote +
On April 01 2010 12:32 hacpee wrote:
April 1st. Don't take anything seriously.


Well, the story was actually reported on March 30th... Also, if this were a joke, the implication would be that it's a joke because Activision is horrible... nobody wins


Oh, never mine then. I seriously dislike Activision ):
KunfO
Profile Joined March 2010
United States81 Posts
April 01 2010 03:40 GMT
#10
On April 01 2010 12:32 hacpee wrote:
April 1st. Don't take anything seriously.


I dont think companies are going to be making April Fool's jokes of management restructuring considering the potential effect to stock prices, investor confidence, etc...
uglymoose89
Profile Blog Joined November 2008
United States671 Posts
April 01 2010 03:52 GMT
#11
On April 01 2010 12:38 AlTheCake wrote:
+ Show Spoiler +
On April 01 2010 12:32 hacpee wrote:
April 1st. Don't take anything seriously.

I was just going to say this.

I honestly won't believe much for the next 48 hours, unless it's a breaking news story on TV or something ><

On April 01 2010 12:37 pat965 wrote:
Show nested quote +
On April 01 2010 12:32 hacpee wrote:
April 1st. Don't take anything seriously.


Well, the story was actually reported on March 30th... Also, if this were a joke, the implication would be that it's a joke because Activision is horrible... nobody wins


Oh, never mine then. I seriously dislike Activision ):


but that's not the problem, the problem is Activision OWNS Blizzard.
broz0rs
Profile Joined July 2008
United States2294 Posts
April 01 2010 03:55 GMT
#12
strange they take a CFO and make him their COO, what's even stranger is that they never had a COO in the first place. CFO's are usually in charge of finance and accounting areas of the company, so to make that executive in charge of operations is unusual.

I don't think this change really means anything; the COO role is what Kotick had with Blizzard prior to this restructuring. An argument can be made that Kotick will be less involved with Blizzard now that there's a COO who will oversea the parent company's subsidiaries, which Blizzard is a part.
Railz
Profile Joined July 2008
United States1449 Posts
April 01 2010 04:40 GMT
#13
Vivendi is still the indirect owners of Blizzard. Activision has only so much leg room as far as operating expenses go when handling Blizzard. As long as Pardo and Samwise stay, I'll stay a fanboy.
Did the whole world just get a lot smaller and go whooosh?_-` Number 0ne By.Fantasy Fanatic!
Fishball
Profile Joined December 2005
Canada4788 Posts
April 01 2010 04:51 GMT
#14
This isn't an April Fool's joke, it's real.
I caught the news yesterday already when I was checking my ATVI stocks.
靈魂交響曲
Ideas
Profile Blog Joined April 2008
United States8091 Posts
April 01 2010 05:05 GMT
#15
On April 01 2010 13:51 Fishball wrote:
This isn't an April Fool's joke, it's real.
I caught the news yesterday already when I was checking my ATVI stocks.


the lesson learned here is just dont make any news posts at all on april 1st.
Free Palestine
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