It’s been over two years since Microsoft publicly announced its intentions to acquire Activision Blizzard, and with the deal now closed as of October 2023, the joint company has wasted no time in laying off staff in “areas of overlap”.
This has naturally caused great controversy after previous promises were made to maintain the status quo. Promises which have fallen by the wayside given the 1,900 job cuts so far.
Now, deputy head of the Irish government Michéal Martin has confirmed that 136 Blizzard Entertainment redundancies are expected in Cork, the Republic of Ireland’s second-largest city. As reported by Irish Examiner, the office only employs around 200 people, meaning a huge 68% of its staff members are due to lose their jobs.
Employee impact
Blizzard Entertainment’s Cork office was established in 2007 as a support centre and employs roughly half of all the Republic of Ireland’s Blizzard staff: approximately 200 in Cork and 200 in Dublin. This means around 34% of its employees across the whole Republic of Ireland can expect to lose their jobs.
Martin declared these cuts to be “very serious” in its implications on employees and their families, while People Before Profit TD Mick Barry has raised the company’s refusal “to engage with the trade union chosen by these workers to represent them”.
He added: “Companies should not be allowed to waltz into this country, announce life-changing cutbacks to people’s jobs and simply refuse to talk to the representatives chosen by people who have given long years of service to their employer.”
America’s Federal Trade Commission raised issue with the 1,900 layoffs earlier this month citing Microsoft’s promise of a vertical merger. Microsoft’s counterclaim is that Activision Blizzard was already planning all these layoffs before the acquisition, but regarding Cork, in January Blizzard only informed Irish staff of potential redundancies, and did not state how many people would be affected.
We have reached out to Blizzard Entertainment for comment.
