Activision Blizzard’s (ATVI) Employees File for Unionization
Activision Blizzard ATVI recently announced that its employees in Boston have filed for union representation. This marks the third merger at the gaming company in just one year after employees of Activision’s Raven Software and Blizzard’s Albany playtesters voted for the same.
This Boston gaming joint doesn’t just include the quality assurance team, which tests video games for bugs and performance and is widely considered outstanding throughout the industry. For the first time at Activision Blizzard, the union also includes designers, animators, engineers and producers.
Such unions in all divisions speak to the dissatisfaction of the company’s employees, which can harm their efficiency, indirectly hampering the company’s performance.
The National Labor Relations Board has also accused Activision Blizzard of violating federal labor laws after the company threatened workers who used social media to discuss poor working conditions.
Microsoft Corp MSFT, which is in talks to buy the gaming giant, has chosen not to indulge in the matter and remain neutral on it as the former itself faces the merger that was unveiled last month at ZeniMax Studios.
Given the record of two previous unions at Activision Blizzard, where workers won despite the firm’s efforts to block the vote, it is expected that the gaming giant will lose out on this unionization as well.
This will keep the unfair practices of the company in check and also help in retaining the skilled employees who can help the growth of the company with their high performance.
Update on Activision Blizzard-Microsoft deal
Apart from unionization, a bigger threat hanging over Activision Blizzard is its acquisition by Microsoft, which is receiving tremendous opposition from authorities in the UK, Europe and America as they believe the deal would harm competition in the industry. games.
After that, another 10 gamers filed a lawsuit in US federal court as they feared that this acquisition would give Microsoft too much market power and create a monopoly in the video game industry.
Other gaming giants like Nintendo NTDOY and Sony Even SONY has expressed its concerns about this takeover, as it could lead to Microsoft not allowing Activision Blizzard games to be released on their consoles. The lack of such engaging games will cause them a huge loss of active users and a drop in their bottom line.
Activision Blizzard, Inc. Price and Consensus
Activision Blizzard, Inc price consensus chart | Activision Blizzard, Inc. quotes
However, to address this, Microsoft has announced that it will make its most popular gaming franchise, Call of Duty available on Nintendo and Sony consoles for at least 10 years if the purchase has gone through successfully.
Amidst all this, Microsoft has signaled its determination to buy Activision Blizzard as it says it is ready to fight authorities like the Federal Trade Commission that are blocking the $75 billion deal.
This suggests that the deal, albeit with some terms and conditions or compromises, will be settled in 2023. This installs confidence in Activision Blizzard investors as we see the stock price rise 13.9% year-to-date against the Zacks Consumer Discretionary sector. which decreased by 36.2%.
The merger would also benefit Activision Blizzard’s games, which currently has a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy) with Microsoft’s cloud computing technology, which is a growing market. This would result in more advanced games and thus gain traction with players.
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