Soon after Microsoft closed their deal to amass Activision Blizzard, each firms stated longtime CEO Bobby Kotick would stay till 2024. Now, we’ve realized he’s resigning earlier.
Kotick will resign as Activision Blizzard CEO on December twenty ninth, ending his tenure of greater than three many years on the firm. Remaining high employees like Mike Ybarra (President, Blizzard Entertainment) and Tjodolf Sommestad (President, King) will stay and now report back to Matt Booty (President, Game Content and Studios).
Other key employees from Activision Blizzard additionally leaving embrace: Lulu Meservey (Executive Vice President, Corporate Affairs and Chief Communications Officer), and Humam Sakhnini (Vice Chairman, Blizzard and King).
Here’s the total phrase (by way of The Verge) from Xbox boss Phil Spencer:
Earlier at present, Activision CEO Bobby Kotick formally introduced that Friday December twenty ninth, 2023 shall be his final day at Microsoft Gaming. Under Bobby’s watch, Activision Blizzard in its many incarnations has been an everlasting pillar of video video games. Whether it’s Call of Duty, World of Warcraft, Candy Crush Saga or any variety of different titles, his groups have created beloved franchises and entertained a whole lot of tens of millions of gamers for many years. I’d prefer to thank Bobby—for his invaluable contributions to this business, his partnership in closing the Activision Blizzard acquisition and his collaboration following the shut—and I want him and his household the easiest in his subsequent chapter.
With Bobby’s impending departure, we’re taking the subsequent step in aligning Activision Blizzard with Microsoft Gaming, by making the next organizational modifications:
- Thomas Tippl (Vice Chairman, Activision Blizzard), Rob Kostich (President, Activision Publishing), Mike Ybarra (President, Blizzard Entertainment) and Tjodolf Sommestad (President, King) will report back to Matt Booty (President, Game Content and Studios). The management groups for Activision Publishing, Blizzard and King will stay in place, with no modifications to the construction of how the studios and enterprise items are run.
- Brian Bulatao (Chief Administrative Officer) will report back to Dave McCarthy (Chief Operations Officer, Microsoft Gaming).
- Julie Hodges (Chief People Officer) will report back to Cynthia Per-Lee (Corporate Vice President, Gaming Human Resources).
- Grant Dixton (Chief Legal Officer) will report back to Linda Norman (Corporate Vice President, Gaming CELA).
- Armin Zerza (Chief Financial Officer) will proceed to report back to Tim Stuart (Corporate Vice President, Finance), as we beforehand introduced to the Finance crew in October.
- Thomas, Brian, Julie, Grant and Armin will proceed to assist us with the transition via March 2024.
- Lulu Meservey (Executive Vice President, Corporate Affairs and Chief Communications Officer) shall be leaving ABK on the finish of January. She has agreed to help Kari Perez (General Manager, Communications) on a management transition plan for the ABK Communications crew, which can report back to Kari. Additionally, Humam Sakhnini (Vice Chairman, Blizzard and King) will depart on the finish of December. We thank Humam and Lulu for his or her management over the previous 12 months.
For most of you, your day-to-day work will stay the identical—it’s nonetheless enterprise as ordinary in bringing extra groundbreaking experiences to extra gamers all over the world. At the management degree, these modifications will present the readability and accountability that’s vital to realize our bold objectives and foster a tradition that’s welcoming, empowering, and dedicated to Gaming for Everyone. We have an thrilling 2024 lineup of video games throughout Activision, Bethesda, Blizzard, King and Xbox Game Studios, and I do know that all of us stay up for sharing extra particulars with our participant communities when the time is true.
Phil
