Activision Blizzard Lays Off 50 Employees: 10,000 Nokia Employees Could Also Lose Jobs

Employees at two major companies could be in danger of losing their jobs as Activision Blizzard recently noted that it will be laying off around 50 people from various divisions that generally deal with the live events as well as the esports segment as the company plans to restructure.

While the 50 might seem bad already, Nokia has recently announced that it could be slashing all the way up to 10,000 jobs over the course of the following two years as it is now going ahead with its corporate restructuring.

Activision Blizzard COVID-19 pandemic

According to the reports by The Verge on Tuesday, March 16, Activision Blizzard actually points towards the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic towards the general viability of live productions for the huge esports leagues as well as the changing viewership habits of its very own core audience through the course of the past year.

Due to the effect of the pandemic on the live division, they will be letting go of certain employees.

A certain Activision Blizzard spokesperson gave a statement to Bloomberg saying that the players are actually increasingly choosing to connect with their games digitally and the whole e-sports team.

Just like any other traditional sport, entertainment, and even broadcasting industry, those in the e-sports industry now have to adapt its business due to the ongoing effects of the pandemic towards live events.

Activision Blizzard laid-off benefits

Bloomberg reportedly noted that those being laid-off by Activision Blizzard will be getting the following:

• Three months pay severance
• 12 months health benefits
• A $200 gift card to use on Activision Blizzard's own Battle.net PC platform

The layoffs reportedly include a number of employees at the Activision-owned mobile firm known as King which is the maker of Candy Crush.

Read Also: ESA Will Go Virtual for E3 Video Game Fair 2021 Due to COVID-19 Pandemic

Nokia lay off by 2023

Nokia, on the other hand, noted that their layoffs were part of their effort to help free up additional funds for investments in their research and development as well as 5G and some other projects according to the Finnish telecom giant.

Nokia now expects to have a still solid 80,000 up to 85,000 employees after it had implemented the scheme over the course of the next 18 up to 24 months down from the strong 90,000 today.

The exact number of layoffs, however, will still depend on the "market developments" that would happen over the course of the next two years, according to the company.

Pekka Lundmark, the CEO of Nokia, gave a statement saying decisions that might have a huge impact on their employees are never ever taken so lightly.

According to the story by NY Post, the new plan will potentially lower Nokia's total cost by about $716 million nearing the end of 2023. These savings will be able to offset the total investments made in R&D as well as future capabilities like 5G, digital and cloud infrastructure, and others.

This article is owned by Tech Times

Written by Urian Buenconsejo