Microsoft Responds To FTC Complaint Saying That Activision Blizzard Was Already Planning Layoffs

The U.S. Federal Trade Commission filed a federal complaint with the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals last week, claiming that Microsoft went back on its word that no layoffs will happen at Activision Blizzard following its acquisition of the studio, which was among those that were heavily affected by the mass layoffs at Microsoft’s gaming division last month.

The FTC says that Microsoft lied to regulators, the public, and the court itself in order to get approval for the hotly contested merger. According to the regulatory body, Microsoft gave its assurance that Activision Blizzard would be integrated vertically into the company to avoid problems with redundancies while also making it easy to divest.

Microsoft has since responded to the complaint, saying: “Activision was already planning on eliminating a significant number of jobs while still operating as an independent company,” although it did admit that they identified some overlap which required them to cut several jobs from the studio. The studio also believes that the complaint should be dismissed since Activision Blizard is still easy to divest.

Whether the court will side with the FTC or with Microsoft remains to be seen, which means that we’ve got another legal drama to follow. We’ll keep you posted.