Phil Spencer email to employees about the Activision Blizzard acquisition

Welcome back from the holidays. To start, I’d like to thank everyone for all of the hard work and dedication that have built this business and this community. Obviously, today’s agreement to acquire Activision Blizzard is incredibly exciting. In fact[,] it’s a milestone for our company, our business[,] and our industry. I and the entire Gaming Leadership Team are deeply enthusiastic about this opportunity. We also announced this morning that we have surpassed 25 million Game Pass subscribers across console, cloud[,] and PC, a great achievement for all of Team Xbox.

As players and partners, we all know how talented and dedicated the teams and studios are across Activision Blizzard. The legendary games and franchises across that company have delighted millions of people for decades. Coming together, we can accelerate our mission to extend the joy and community of gaming to everyone. We have the capability and opportunity to build simply the best, most engaging, most fun entertainment ecosystem anywhere.

Microsoft is committed to our journey for inclusion in every aspect of gaming, among both employees and players. We deeply value individual studio cultures. We also believe that creative success and autonomy go hand-in-hand with treating every person with dignity and respect. We hold all teams, and all leaders, to this commitment. We’re looking forward to extending our culture of proactive inclusion to the great teams across Activision Blizzard.

We expect this acquisition to close in FY23, pending regulatory approvals. Once the acquisition is completed, the Activision Blizzard business will report to me. In the meantime, we know you will have a lot of questions. The Gaming Leadership Team and I look forward to answering as many as we can at our next Monthly Gaming Update on Jan. 26. You can submit your questions now anonymously, or post them on our Team Xbox Yammer. Please also refresh on our corporate social media guidelines.

As Satya mentioned, I am now CEO, Microsoft Gaming. This change is a reflection of the incredible work each of you [is] doing to create the best entertainment ecosystem anywhere. As a leadership team, we know how much exciting but difficult work we have ahead of us, so it’s crucial that we operate as a single, unified team. To that end, I’m excited to announce effective today that Jerret West, CMO of Gaming, and his marketing team will move from Chris Capossela’s organization to report directly to me. Jerret will continue to be a member of Chris’ leadership team and leverage critical parts of Microsoft’s marketing muscle including Communications, Media, and Consumer Sales.

We will have a webcast for investors and media at 6 a.m. PT to discuss the Activision Blizzard transaction and our plans as Microsoft Gaming. Please join if you can.

Phil

Conversation 4 comments

  • lvthunder

    Premium Member
    19 January, 2022 - 11:07 am

    <p>That’s interesting that they are splitting off marketing.</p>

    • anoldamigauser

      Premium Member
      19 January, 2022 - 12:08 pm

      <p>I guess that he cannot be "CEO, Microsoft Gaming" without having some senior executives directly reporting to him.</p><p>This is either recognition that Gaming is now a very serious slice of the business, or they are giving Gaming more autonomy.</p>

      • Greg Green

        20 January, 2022 - 8:06 am

        <p>Either option seems to be a good thing.</p>

      • LT1 Z51

        Premium Member
        20 January, 2022 - 11:00 am

        <p>Likely they are structuring the gaming business separate for reporting purposes so that they don’t have to claim Microsoft’s full market cap, industry weight, etc when they get regulatory scrutiny from various governments. If you can saw off the gaming group (even if only internally) as a fully independent entity you can argue that that entity is the one merging with Activision Blizzard and not the whole of Microsoft.</p>

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