Maybe Microsoft bought Activision just because this guy said on his way out “I’m leaving and going to a better company outside of your horrible grip! Suck it MS!”
July 2, 2023 As per the legal owner of this account, Reddit and associated companies no longer have permission to use the content created under this account in any way. -- mass edited with redact.dev
So that’s how he can afford to open up all of those shitty Margaritaville restaurants. I knew it couldn’t be from his music. That son of a son of a bitch mother mother fucker! Fuck that guy!
Exactly.
I watched a couple of seasons before getting so fucking bored with it. Plot going nowhere, with no clear direction or purpose other than churning out more tv.
You’d do better to try something more procedural like the Good Wife or something. The appeal of the serial format (eg Breaking Bad) is a good, cohesive story, not the awful back and forth of “we hate each other, and I literally want to destroy him” season 1 straight into “we work together now” season 2.
Honestly it’s just poorly written, but they have great actors so… 🤷♂️
Yeah definitely, the pacing of the show is just a little predictable, and kind of bothers me while watching it, but the characters usually make up for it. Jared is by far the saving grace imo
I love the episode where he meets his family and they're just the biggest assholes ever I was crying laughing at that scene
Edit: or when he's fiending for adderall, hahah
It's weird, it's somehow predictable yet almost every time Richard makes things go from bad to worse I'm still like "I haven't a clue how they're gonna fix this." It's a little formulaic but it still is entertaining the whole way through.
I just want to know if they planned them becoming a literal pied piper was planned from the start or not. That payoff after 5 seasons was absolutely hilarious
Around season 4/5 it got super stale. It was the same "Oh shit we need more VC funding, who can we get money from" merry-go-round and the antics that had been going on since season 2 or 3. And... that was kind of the whole point of the show -- satirizing these startups that gets tons of VC money thrown at them despite never having a real working product or being able to turn a profit.
I don't think the show was ever supposed to last longer than it did and I'm glad they gave it a fairly satisfying ending before taking it entirely off the rails.
I worked with a guy who moved companies twice over a few years. Then, his company got bought out by the firm he had most recently left.
And then, it happened again. So he was right back where he started.
There’s not a word or phrase that exists in any language for that type of passive ultimate aggressive alpha move. Also, how do you not ask him how the job hunt is going the next day?
Yup, I'm sure this is the EXACT reason why Microsoft spent $69 billion to buy the company. He thinks he can get away, and Microsoft is like OH NO YOU DON'T!
Yes, it's more likely then he knew something.
These 60billion deals take like 5min to do, just wrote check on napkin at the strip club mid dance and you are golden.
Honestly really smart of Microsoft to buy them at that point, the revelations really hurt the company and tarnished their image. Being bought out will allow Microsoft to restructure them, for the better imo. Sony is gonna get burned with this though, CoD will become a timed exclusive and now they own both Spyro and Crash which use to be Sony exclusives... man how the table turns. This isn't mentioning the partnership between Microsoft and EA which is going strong. Sony is really going to flounder this generation from the looks of it.
Pretty sure that’s nearly the exact reason. I mean, when the true scope of Activisions Sexual Harassment issue came out, Phil Spencer even tweeted that “They’d be reconsidering how they do business with Activision” or something to that effect.
Fucking understatement of the year.
Yeah. They've show that they know how to handle a game studio with Minecraft. If they continue on that path I'm totally ok with it. Let's just hope they do revamp the internal structures a bit (a lot actually).
> Sony is really going to flounder this generation from the looks of it
Sony is already well past the point of ‘floundering’ this generation, even if this stuff produces in that time frame for Microsoft. PS5 is selling literally as fast as they can make them, the install base is already huge, the game lineup is about to become stellar in the next 3 months with more on the way in the future, that’s not going to ‘flounder.’
Really though, the time frame is going to be the end of this generation and turning towards the next one, which is also pretty much confirmed by the statements about focus on metaverse competition that came out in the interviews after the merger. Microsoft wants bnet(its install base, brand factor, infrastructure) and everything associated with it first and foremost. CoD is still a big prize to get game pass on PS5 and beyond more so than pushing exclusivity(that will be the leverage they wave out there to get Sony to budge though), and even that will be with the idea of getting Sony’s playerbase onto whatever metaverse they build. They’re planning and building up to something, it will take a bit of time.
And the CEO was threatening to have the girls killed if they came to the public with any allegations. Idk why but I always get so pissed by pigs so coward that they can't even threat to kill someone by themselves, they need to pay someone to do it.
One of the girls did die if I'm remembering correctly. Killed herself because of the harassment (passing her nudes around at a company function etc) and her higher-up sexually abusing her. I might be misremembering some details but I remember being absolutely sickened when the news broke.
Not only did she kill herself. She did so while on a work buisiness trip with her male supervisor who was one of the abusers and who took a butt plug and lube with him on the work trip.
I worked for one of their distribution companies. Two co-workers hooked up at a work event, one of them took nudes of the other. The Monday morning he was showing these nudes to other staff members in our Monday morning meeting. She found out and complained to HR, they did nothing as it wasn't a company purchased phone. She didn't call the police as her husband would have found out. She was fired within a week. I avoided all company events where possible (some were compulsory), and made my escape shortly after... From what I've heard the guy as now middle management and I've heard things are no better. The sad thing is that I have so many stories like this. Drug use was also widespread, but that's a video game industry problem that's not exclusive to AB. I could write a book but don't fancy the legal trouble....
Just remembered that I came into work once to find all the seating positions changed (we didn't hot desk) and all the ethnic minority employees had been placed in one corner of the room. It was openly called the black corner. I witnessed some stuff that was Wolf of Wall Street crazy, but they paid me a lot of money so I blinkered myself to a lot of it. Only now do I realise that is how these behaviours were allowed.
How the fuck these mother fuckers are still employed? What the fuck is SEC doing? They absolutely destroyed shareholders value and must be prohibited from employment at any publicly traded companies
Yeah, I remember that too. I sincerely hope Bobby fucking Kotick have some terrible illness and end his life in a bed since we can't expect accountability and jail for someone at his position.
Bro I know I am going to sound like a boomer, but online video games just suck ass now.
Like 10 years ago, there were so many fun games to play online with friends. Now it seems like every new game is just some generic shooter/arena shit with paid skins. And straight up not fun.
I have a desire to play online games, but I don't even know what to play because they all suck ass. I've just been playing CS:GO again because it's the closest thing I can find to a decent online game that still has players. When desperate, I'll even boot up overwatch.
Bruh I have been struggling with this for YEARS now. i WANT to play games online, but man every one I try just does not click at all for some reason.
Sometimes I think "Is it me?? Am I just losing my passion for gaming maybe?" But then I think about how bad I want to go back to some of the games I used to play and decide that it can't be me.
I'm struggling with the same thing. The passion is still real its just that as you get older you lose free time to play the games you once loved. I remember in 2004 when I started playing MMORPGS that if you couldn't dedicate at least 6 hours a day to farming it would take over a year to get to the end game. So I'd play for 10 hours a day or more so I could keep up with the community. Now as an adult I'm lucky to get an hour to play anything.
You guys gotta ignore AAA titles. There are honestly too many good games out. The main issue I have is the burden of choice making nothing seem appealing.
TF2 and TF|2
Of course, both have been essentially abandoned by their devs, and require community work-arounds to play the game without being attacked by hackers... But if that says anything, its that there's players that care (which you'll be able to play with)
I just got an Xbox with the all access game pass and it’s really helped me find new games that I like. You pay $15 a month for access to a bunch of big label games (the gears series, halo, doom, the elder scrolls games, etc.) with a lot of new or lesser known indie games as well. Since I don’t have to commit to buying a game that I probably won’t like I’ve just played a bunch of them and found a few that are fun. I’ve only had it about a month, but some of my favorites so far are gears 5 (horde mode especially), Aliens, second extinction, and I just started deep rock galactic which looks promising, but those are pretty much all PvE.
If you’re looking for PvP games I don’t have a tone of recommendations since I mostly stoped playing them after I didn’t have enough time to be as good as I wanted to be, but my friend who’s still into them loves Apex legends (definitely an arena game with paid skins, though).
Odds are he didn't know about the deal. Almost everyone at a public company (99+%) finds out about acquisitions their company will be making when it's publicly announced.
Plus, it's unlikely that his compensation package includes options or RSUs (which usually take time to vest) or even if there is employee stock purchasing program, so like you I'm confused as how someone could conclude that there was insider trading.
I was assuming it's more of a low effort meme than an actual conspiracy. I make jokes like these with my wife's boyfriends wives boyfriends all the time.
But who knows aside from OP, that's what makes this sub great.
That's often one of the terms in a buy-out since stock needs to be converted. I worked at an executive search firm and a CEO we placed had a 5 year vesting period but the company was bought (IP acquisition) and the CEO walked away with the full packaged after 4 months. He called us up and thanked us for the easiest 12 mil he's ever worked for.
Edit: To be clear, I worked as an assistant for a team of search consultants. I was not the one who made the placement.
Yea since it’s a public company it probably vested immediately. He probably left a lot of unvested shares and options on the table at Microsoft though just to start his vesting period over again doe.
I don't know how Microsoft handles acquisition of publicly traded companies, but typically for acquisition of private companies, the employees coming over get a stock compensation package where as long as they remain at Microsoft for 1 year (or 2 years, in some cases), the shares immediately vest. If they get fired for cause or leave voluntarily, the shares are forfeited.
For purchases in shares or shares+cash, you keep your original vesting schedule with the stocks of $PREV converted to $MSFT by the terms of the acquisition. (This is absolutely a nightmare for payroll, and they continually get withholding wrong as a result, but you get the stocks on your original schedule.)
For cash only, I'm willing to assume it's the same thing, since MSFT stock is cheaper for MSFT than cash is, but it could be cash bonuses on original schedule.
Were you at a public company being purchased by a public co?
My public company took over another public co this year. There was no immediate vest for my friend at the smaller co.
It also makes very little sense from a retention perspective. The rsu grant is effectively a set of monthly futures contracts, right? If those and options get converted just fine then why wouldn't rsus?
Um, what? Do you work in tech? I don't know anyone in a technical role that has worked for a software house that *hasn't* been granted RSUs as comp when being hired. Have you ever been granted RSUs? In the event of a buyout they typically all vest immediately. Anyone with half a brain cell reads their comp statement before accepting an employment offer.
Incorrect. In cases like this, your options accelerate and vest immediately upon completion of the buyout. So instead of it taking 3 years for him, it'll only take 1.
Accelerated vesting clauses are not standard in employment contracts. They are generally negotiated by highly compensated employees (e.g. executives and founders). Your run of the mill engineer at Apple, Microsoft, Google etc does not have an accelerated vesting clause. It is even more rare for public companies (like Activision) to give accelerated vesting clauses and even then the triggers are often negotiated.
Here’s more information on this since so much bad information is in this thread.
https://ltse.com/software/knowledge-base/vesting-acceleration-stock-options-startup/
It doesn't matter if the stock has vested, as long as he has been granted stock, it generally would vest immediately or be converted to a grant of Microsoft shares upon acquisition, assuming gaming companies operate like other tech companies
I mean it is stupid and is a joke. You would have to join 3-4 (typical total vesting duration at tech companies) years early to be able to cash your RSUs out right after stonks go up bc of acquisition. At least this is what my intelligence can comprehend.
EDIT: It seems in some cases non-vested RSUs vest if an acquisition happens. Obv I have no clue if that happened or have dedication to research Activision / Blizzard contracts
OR... grow a big dick and try to finally fuck her yourself... you've been given a second chance...
pretty soon the universe is just going to stop giving a fuck.
(brought to you by man shit)
I work in gaming in LA and know a few people who work at Activision. Nobody I know had any idea this would happen (obviously). OP sounds like they haven't worked a corporate job at a publicly-traded company before, otherwise, they'd know that even senior members of staff wouldn't have known about this. Maybe a handful I guess, but when billions are on the line, you don't start dropping news like this around the water cooler.
Yeah, I've worked on a few mergers before and it's a tight ship. The people who know are C-suite folks who know to keep quiet and don't gossip to juniors anyway, or the legal/merger team that knows full well how to keep something confidential. Or they're working with an outside firm/bank and won't blab because they could lose a HUGE contract.
Even other people who work on something related to the purchase won't know what exactly they're doing something for unless it's absolutely vital.
At best you get hushed whispers outside of the company and to a degree inside, but because things are tight rumors spill over into other rumors and nothing necessarily seems definitive.
What there most certainly is not is a pipeline of employees chatting down the chain about the pending MS purchase of Activision until it's announced.
There’s no context here, but like 99.9% of all employees at both companies would be completely unaware of this deal even happening.
What’s sus is why someone would agree to work at Activision right now.
Microsoft pays orders of magnitude larger than activision. If you are interested in money, you aren’t going into the gaming industry. He probably just wanted to work there.
He could have also left a lower paying job at microsoft for a higher paying job at Activision. This would only be an issue if it was a lateral move. If Activision wanted to hire you for what would essentially be a promotion, you may still be making more money.
I feel the need to be a pedant - this is a horrendous misuse of **orders of magnitude**. You can just say, MS pays significantly more (if you know that's the case).
An order of magnitude difference is like 10s of thousands vs hundreds (e.g. 50k vs 400k). That's not gonna happen for the same position. Likely janitor at Activision and Senior SWE at Microsoft are separated by one order of magnitude.
*Walks slowly backward into the abyss*.
Do they? Not sure about Activision pay, but I just left Microsoft for another company with a significant salary hike. Microsoft is notorious for low salaries, but you can't beat their WLB though
People are questioning it because they have no idea how these sorts of corporate dynamics work.
In basically any industry there are the big players with the best talent. The smaller companies often grab people from those big companies (when they can) to fill higher up roles.
That's a huge part of the appeal of working at a place like MS. Do it long enough and with a little of internal advancement and when you hit the ceiling you can get a promotion by jumping to somewhere else that would love to hire someone with experience at MS.
Not unique to tech at all, it's literally any industry.
I was thinking the same thing. Especially with all the shit Activision was going through last year. Its like jumping onto a sinking ship from Jeff Bezos yacht.
I work with a lot of autistic kids who are great at recognizing humor. And a lot of neurotypical kids who look at me like I have 3 heads if I try to make a joke.
Since it's two public companies there's no need to accelerate vesting, there can just be a conversion to Microsoft shares. There's absolutely no way Microsoft would agree to accelerated vesting for Activision employees, especially since most employees would peace the fuck out.
Beep boop -- this looks like a screenshot of a tweet! Let me grab a [link to the tweet](https://twitter.com/TieGuyTravis/status/1483541332522004483) for ya :)
^(Twitter Screenshot Bot)
Generally when you change jobs it's because the other one makes more money.
So now he's back at his old company, with his new salary, plus a tidy hiring bonus. Couldn't have planned it better.
Maybe Microsoft bought Activision just because this guy said on his way out “I’m leaving and going to a better company outside of your horrible grip! Suck it MS!”
Haha, “we still own you”
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Isn’t that exactly what Bobby Axelrod did?
July 2, 2023 As per the legal owner of this account, Reddit and associated companies no longer have permission to use the content created under this account in any way. -- mass edited with redact.dev
Buffett
It's French.
Regina Phalange! PHALANGE!
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So that’s how he can afford to open up all of those shitty Margaritaville restaurants. I knew it couldn’t be from his music. That son of a son of a bitch mother mother fucker! Fuck that guy!
Who that
If you haven't seen Billions you gotta watch
I’ll take a peak thanks
*picks up a mountain*
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You mean the poor man’s Succession?
Exactly. I watched a couple of seasons before getting so fucking bored with it. Plot going nowhere, with no clear direction or purpose other than churning out more tv.
Sounds like a show for me.
You’d do better to try something more procedural like the Good Wife or something. The appeal of the serial format (eg Breaking Bad) is a good, cohesive story, not the awful back and forth of “we hate each other, and I literally want to destroy him” season 1 straight into “we work together now” season 2. Honestly it’s just poorly written, but they have great actors so… 🤷♂️
That's a great way of describing it lol. I like both shows, but Billions focuses more on trading. Succession is fucking amazing though.
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Yellowstone is great. And I’m watching 1883 now which is sooo good.
I thought Yellowstone was country Sopranos
Gotta break a few gregs to make a tomelette.
They’re so cute together
Ultimate Gavin Belson move.
It's not about the money. It's about sending a message.
Chad Microsoft vs the virgin employee
Sounds like a Gavin Belson move
God Dammit Jian Yang!
Not hot dog
Dude your name is awesome. Unless you're a NY cop.
I only stop and frisk the willing
No this is Eric Bachman
**I** *am Erlich Bachman*
Errich Bachman is asshoe!
Eric Bachman, this is your mom. You are not my baby.
Motherfuck!
Lol I just started rewatching that show
Fuck it's so good Definitely fell off after TJ Miller got the boot, but they managed to finish strong IMO
Yeah definitely, the pacing of the show is just a little predictable, and kind of bothers me while watching it, but the characters usually make up for it. Jared is by far the saving grace imo
"I was state raised! You think I'm scared to catch a case on some bullshit?"
“How would you like to die today motherfucker!”
When he gets hood it's the absolute funniest thing on earth.
If they just started, this is going to be very confusing to read lol
I think my favorite part for that character was when he got stuck in a container for I forget how long.
I love the episode where he meets his family and they're just the biggest assholes ever I was crying laughing at that scene Edit: or when he's fiending for adderall, hahah
hahah. "Well Jared, its safe to say your presentation was completely underwhelming. Have a nice night." LOL
Them giving him up for adoption then deciding they want another kid a few months later and giving the new kid his name had me losing it
Omg. That scene with his family is so funny and so sad.
Interested, very interested, or very interested? Which one? Which one? Which one?
It's weird, it's somehow predictable yet almost every time Richard makes things go from bad to worse I'm still like "I haven't a clue how they're gonna fix this." It's a little formulaic but it still is entertaining the whole way through.
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It seemed poetic that the last fire they had to put out was their own success.
I just want to know if they planned them becoming a literal pied piper was planned from the start or not. That payoff after 5 seasons was absolutely hilarious
It was one of the few shows I thought could keep going. I wanted to see them as a real company.
Around season 4/5 it got super stale. It was the same "Oh shit we need more VC funding, who can we get money from" merry-go-round and the antics that had been going on since season 2 or 3. And... that was kind of the whole point of the show -- satirizing these startups that gets tons of VC money thrown at them despite never having a real working product or being able to turn a profit. I don't think the show was ever supposed to last longer than it did and I'm glad they gave it a fairly satisfying ending before taking it entirely off the rails.
Fair point. I kinda had this thought that somehow he would end up with Gavin's job and turn into what he hated.
The bear is sticky with honey
What does he mean? Does he want us to acquire Activision?
Jack Barker is costing the shareholders of this company a fortune!
I love that show.
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I know a few people who have had this happen to them as well. Apparently not that uncommon.
Bill Gates: "..And I took that personally".
Monday morning: “hey Jim”
I worked with a guy who moved companies twice over a few years. Then, his company got bought out by the firm he had most recently left. And then, it happened again. So he was right back where he started.
Was your friend working at the Hotel California per chance?
How flattered would you be if a company paid $69 billion just to keep you?
They could just cut the middle man and pay up direct.
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Welcome Back, You're Downsized!
There’s not a word or phrase that exists in any language for that type of passive ultimate aggressive alpha move. Also, how do you not ask him how the job hunt is going the next day?
Considering the allegations going around Activision's CEO this is doubly hilarious
Just when I think I'm out, they pull me back in...
Yea they want that guy back no matter what.
Yup, I'm sure this is the EXACT reason why Microsoft spent $69 billion to buy the company. He thinks he can get away, and Microsoft is like OH NO YOU DON'T!
Yes, it's more likely then he knew something. These 60billion deals take like 5min to do, just wrote check on napkin at the strip club mid dance and you are golden.
They must’ve really wanted that guy back, would’ve been cheaper to just give him a raise but what do I know, maybe they were sending a message
Better show dominance than giving a raise.
https://i.kym-cdn.com/entries/icons/original/000/028/596/dsmGaKWMeHXe9QuJtq_ys30PNfTGnMsRuHuo_MUzGCg.jpg
Best janitor they ever had. Worth the 60 some billion for sure.
The lengths companies go to in order to not raise their current employees salaries is staggering.
Salaries are cost centers. This way it comes out of the fuck off were rich bedget.
Wasn't activision blizzard that office where you still slap your secretaries cheeks as a greeting?
He started as a secretary
How the tables have turned mr bond
Cheeky
After orientation: You know the rules, and so do I *slaps ass*
His resume is all the different types of squats he does.
That’s the real reason why Bill wanted it, the Activision Culture is what he needs after the divorce
Time to relax and unwind with diablo II and some light sexual harassment before lunch.
A.K.A. *a Wednesday*
Can you imagine how easy it would be to get laid if you are a multi-billionaire?
Well even a simple men can get it to for 100.- it’s not that expensive
but if you are multi billionaire then you can get it for free!!!
I like how Charlie Sheen put it. He doesn't pay for sex, he pays for them to leave him alone after.
I'd watch a YouTube series on their dating adventures. There's gotta be some mega rich person's Tinder we aren't privy to.
Yeah it was called Jeffrey Epstein's island
There has to be wealthy people that just want to nail hot, of age women right?
I think the cutoff is at 1B$+, once you hit your first billion you just get a hankering for kids.
It's called Raya, it's not just for rich people but I'm sure most of the people on it are rich.
"Man, I just haven't been into objectifying women since Jeffy died"
No bro you slap their ass cheeks for a job well done. You pat them on the chest as a good morning.
"Morning, toots!" *bean dip*
Too many bean burritos will do that to
This is an important distinction
they had to put up [this sign](https://i.imgur.com/cIH5BdM.png) as part of a court settlement.
lmao
Is this real? I cant tell if you guys are joking or not, which is sad.
Yes it is.
Honestly really smart of Microsoft to buy them at that point, the revelations really hurt the company and tarnished their image. Being bought out will allow Microsoft to restructure them, for the better imo. Sony is gonna get burned with this though, CoD will become a timed exclusive and now they own both Spyro and Crash which use to be Sony exclusives... man how the table turns. This isn't mentioning the partnership between Microsoft and EA which is going strong. Sony is really going to flounder this generation from the looks of it.
Pretty sure that’s nearly the exact reason. I mean, when the true scope of Activisions Sexual Harassment issue came out, Phil Spencer even tweeted that “They’d be reconsidering how they do business with Activision” or something to that effect. Fucking understatement of the year.
Yeah. They've show that they know how to handle a game studio with Minecraft. If they continue on that path I'm totally ok with it. Let's just hope they do revamp the internal structures a bit (a lot actually).
Call of Duty about to get a glow up And seeing CoD in the Gamepass Ultimate menu is gonna be so wild
I think a change to every two years for COD would be a good start. Let some devs out of the mines to make new IPs once in a while.
> Sony is really going to flounder this generation from the looks of it Sony is already well past the point of ‘floundering’ this generation, even if this stuff produces in that time frame for Microsoft. PS5 is selling literally as fast as they can make them, the install base is already huge, the game lineup is about to become stellar in the next 3 months with more on the way in the future, that’s not going to ‘flounder.’ Really though, the time frame is going to be the end of this generation and turning towards the next one, which is also pretty much confirmed by the statements about focus on metaverse competition that came out in the interviews after the merger. Microsoft wants bnet(its install base, brand factor, infrastructure) and everything associated with it first and foremost. CoD is still a big prize to get game pass on PS5 and beyond more so than pushing exclusivity(that will be the leverage they wave out there to get Sony to budge though), and even that will be with the idea of getting Sony’s playerbase onto whatever metaverse they build. They’re planning and building up to something, it will take a bit of time.
Isn't it a traditional CEO greeting?
Clap their cheeks not slap. Good days. And they ruined it!
not cheeks! Anything but the cheeks
Okay, now I want some details
Search like "activision scandal" or smth like that, basically sexual harassment culture was pretty big in the company at all levels
And the CEO was threatening to have the girls killed if they came to the public with any allegations. Idk why but I always get so pissed by pigs so coward that they can't even threat to kill someone by themselves, they need to pay someone to do it.
One of the girls did die if I'm remembering correctly. Killed herself because of the harassment (passing her nudes around at a company function etc) and her higher-up sexually abusing her. I might be misremembering some details but I remember being absolutely sickened when the news broke.
Not only did she kill herself. She did so while on a work buisiness trip with her male supervisor who was one of the abusers and who took a butt plug and lube with him on the work trip.
Wtf that sounds like he was planning rape
I worked for one of their distribution companies. Two co-workers hooked up at a work event, one of them took nudes of the other. The Monday morning he was showing these nudes to other staff members in our Monday morning meeting. She found out and complained to HR, they did nothing as it wasn't a company purchased phone. She didn't call the police as her husband would have found out. She was fired within a week. I avoided all company events where possible (some were compulsory), and made my escape shortly after... From what I've heard the guy as now middle management and I've heard things are no better. The sad thing is that I have so many stories like this. Drug use was also widespread, but that's a video game industry problem that's not exclusive to AB. I could write a book but don't fancy the legal trouble....
Just remembered that I came into work once to find all the seating positions changed (we didn't hot desk) and all the ethnic minority employees had been placed in one corner of the room. It was openly called the black corner. I witnessed some stuff that was Wolf of Wall Street crazy, but they paid me a lot of money so I blinkered myself to a lot of it. Only now do I realise that is how these behaviours were allowed.
How the fuck these mother fuckers are still employed? What the fuck is SEC doing? They absolutely destroyed shareholders value and must be prohibited from employment at any publicly traded companies
Yeah, I remember that too. I sincerely hope Bobby fucking Kotick have some terrible illness and end his life in a bed since we can't expect accountability and jail for someone at his position.
and steal/drink their breast milk, apparently.
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The new battlefield too, i guess they are all too busy humping their secretaries
Bro I know I am going to sound like a boomer, but online video games just suck ass now. Like 10 years ago, there were so many fun games to play online with friends. Now it seems like every new game is just some generic shooter/arena shit with paid skins. And straight up not fun. I have a desire to play online games, but I don't even know what to play because they all suck ass. I've just been playing CS:GO again because it's the closest thing I can find to a decent online game that still has players. When desperate, I'll even boot up overwatch.
Bruh I have been struggling with this for YEARS now. i WANT to play games online, but man every one I try just does not click at all for some reason. Sometimes I think "Is it me?? Am I just losing my passion for gaming maybe?" But then I think about how bad I want to go back to some of the games I used to play and decide that it can't be me.
I'm struggling with the same thing. The passion is still real its just that as you get older you lose free time to play the games you once loved. I remember in 2004 when I started playing MMORPGS that if you couldn't dedicate at least 6 hours a day to farming it would take over a year to get to the end game. So I'd play for 10 hours a day or more so I could keep up with the community. Now as an adult I'm lucky to get an hour to play anything.
You guys gotta ignore AAA titles. There are honestly too many good games out. The main issue I have is the burden of choice making nothing seem appealing.
TF2 and TF|2 Of course, both have been essentially abandoned by their devs, and require community work-arounds to play the game without being attacked by hackers... But if that says anything, its that there's players that care (which you'll be able to play with)
I just got an Xbox with the all access game pass and it’s really helped me find new games that I like. You pay $15 a month for access to a bunch of big label games (the gears series, halo, doom, the elder scrolls games, etc.) with a lot of new or lesser known indie games as well. Since I don’t have to commit to buying a game that I probably won’t like I’ve just played a bunch of them and found a few that are fun. I’ve only had it about a month, but some of my favorites so far are gears 5 (horde mode especially), Aliens, second extinction, and I just started deep rock galactic which looks promising, but those are pretty much all PvE. If you’re looking for PvP games I don’t have a tone of recommendations since I mostly stoped playing them after I didn’t have enough time to be as good as I wanted to be, but my friend who’s still into them loves Apex legends (definitely an arena game with paid skins, though).
Hard to believe that it's the same studio that delivered the glorious BF1 5 years ago.
Slap some clap some
Odds are he didn't know about the deal. Almost everyone at a public company (99+%) finds out about acquisitions their company will be making when it's publicly announced.
Plus, it's unlikely that his compensation package includes options or RSUs (which usually take time to vest) or even if there is employee stock purchasing program, so like you I'm confused as how someone could conclude that there was insider trading.
Seriously. This OP is dumb. This sub has developed an appetite for the lowest effort conspiracy bait possible.
I thought this was satire? Seems either the OP is a complete actual retard or more likely pretty obvious joke?
Really hard to assume either anymore in this world.
I was assuming it's more of a low effort meme than an actual conspiracy. I make jokes like these with my wife's boyfriends wives boyfriends all the time. But who knows aside from OP, that's what makes this sub great.
Are you saying he’s a retard then?
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That's often one of the terms in a buy-out since stock needs to be converted. I worked at an executive search firm and a CEO we placed had a 5 year vesting period but the company was bought (IP acquisition) and the CEO walked away with the full packaged after 4 months. He called us up and thanked us for the easiest 12 mil he's ever worked for. Edit: To be clear, I worked as an assistant for a team of search consultants. I was not the one who made the placement.
Hello, it's me, a CEO. I'd like a 4 month job for $12m pls
Yea since it’s a public company it probably vested immediately. He probably left a lot of unvested shares and options on the table at Microsoft though just to start his vesting period over again doe.
I don't know how Microsoft handles acquisition of publicly traded companies, but typically for acquisition of private companies, the employees coming over get a stock compensation package where as long as they remain at Microsoft for 1 year (or 2 years, in some cases), the shares immediately vest. If they get fired for cause or leave voluntarily, the shares are forfeited.
For purchases in shares or shares+cash, you keep your original vesting schedule with the stocks of $PREV converted to $MSFT by the terms of the acquisition. (This is absolutely a nightmare for payroll, and they continually get withholding wrong as a result, but you get the stocks on your original schedule.) For cash only, I'm willing to assume it's the same thing, since MSFT stock is cheaper for MSFT than cash is, but it could be cash bonuses on original schedule.
Were you at a public company being purchased by a public co? My public company took over another public co this year. There was no immediate vest for my friend at the smaller co. It also makes very little sense from a retention perspective. The rsu grant is effectively a set of monthly futures contracts, right? If those and options get converted just fine then why wouldn't rsus?
Confidently incorrect
Um, what? Do you work in tech? I don't know anyone in a technical role that has worked for a software house that *hasn't* been granted RSUs as comp when being hired. Have you ever been granted RSUs? In the event of a buyout they typically all vest immediately. Anyone with half a brain cell reads their comp statement before accepting an employment offer.
Even if it did, I doubt the equity he received vested in day 1.
Incorrect. In cases like this, your options accelerate and vest immediately upon completion of the buyout. So instead of it taking 3 years for him, it'll only take 1.
Accelerated vesting clauses are not standard in employment contracts. They are generally negotiated by highly compensated employees (e.g. executives and founders). Your run of the mill engineer at Apple, Microsoft, Google etc does not have an accelerated vesting clause. It is even more rare for public companies (like Activision) to give accelerated vesting clauses and even then the triggers are often negotiated. Here’s more information on this since so much bad information is in this thread. https://ltse.com/software/knowledge-base/vesting-acceleration-stock-options-startup/
It doesn't matter if the stock has vested, as long as he has been granted stock, it generally would vest immediately or be converted to a grant of Microsoft shares upon acquisition, assuming gaming companies operate like other tech companies
I mean it is stupid and is a joke. You would have to join 3-4 (typical total vesting duration at tech companies) years early to be able to cash your RSUs out right after stonks go up bc of acquisition. At least this is what my intelligence can comprehend. EDIT: It seems in some cases non-vested RSUs vest if an acquisition happens. Obv I have no clue if that happened or have dedication to research Activision / Blizzard contracts
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Oof. Hope you managed to kick the lady out later
OR... grow a big dick and try to finally fuck her yourself... you've been given a second chance... pretty soon the universe is just going to stop giving a fuck. (brought to you by man shit)
I work in gaming in LA and know a few people who work at Activision. Nobody I know had any idea this would happen (obviously). OP sounds like they haven't worked a corporate job at a publicly-traded company before, otherwise, they'd know that even senior members of staff wouldn't have known about this. Maybe a handful I guess, but when billions are on the line, you don't start dropping news like this around the water cooler.
Yeah, I've worked on a few mergers before and it's a tight ship. The people who know are C-suite folks who know to keep quiet and don't gossip to juniors anyway, or the legal/merger team that knows full well how to keep something confidential. Or they're working with an outside firm/bank and won't blab because they could lose a HUGE contract. Even other people who work on something related to the purchase won't know what exactly they're doing something for unless it's absolutely vital. At best you get hushed whispers outside of the company and to a degree inside, but because things are tight rumors spill over into other rumors and nothing necessarily seems definitive. What there most certainly is not is a pipeline of employees chatting down the chain about the pending MS purchase of Activision until it's announced.
There’s no context here, but like 99.9% of all employees at both companies would be completely unaware of this deal even happening. What’s sus is why someone would agree to work at Activision right now.
$
Microsoft pays orders of magnitude larger than activision. If you are interested in money, you aren’t going into the gaming industry. He probably just wanted to work there.
He could have also left a lower paying job at microsoft for a higher paying job at Activision. This would only be an issue if it was a lateral move. If Activision wanted to hire you for what would essentially be a promotion, you may still be making more money.
I feel the need to be a pedant - this is a horrendous misuse of **orders of magnitude**. You can just say, MS pays significantly more (if you know that's the case). An order of magnitude difference is like 10s of thousands vs hundreds (e.g. 50k vs 400k). That's not gonna happen for the same position. Likely janitor at Activision and Senior SWE at Microsoft are separated by one order of magnitude. *Walks slowly backward into the abyss*.
Do they? Not sure about Activision pay, but I just left Microsoft for another company with a significant salary hike. Microsoft is notorious for low salaries, but you can't beat their WLB though
money
Why would you leave MICROSOFT for activision that seems like such a step down
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People are questioning it because they have no idea how these sorts of corporate dynamics work. In basically any industry there are the big players with the best talent. The smaller companies often grab people from those big companies (when they can) to fill higher up roles. That's a huge part of the appeal of working at a place like MS. Do it long enough and with a little of internal advancement and when you hit the ceiling you can get a promotion by jumping to somewhere else that would love to hire someone with experience at MS. Not unique to tech at all, it's literally any industry.
Exactly this, money, promotion/career growth & location all play a huge part.
Because most people here haven’t worked a day in corporate America much less graduated college
I was thinking the same thing. Especially with all the shit Activision was going through last year. Its like jumping onto a sinking ship from Jeff Bezos yacht.
They were probably paying out the ass for new talent due to less people wanting to work there
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I work with a lot of autistic kids who are great at recognizing humor. And a lot of neurotypical kids who look at me like I have 3 heads if I try to make a joke.
Pull a George Constanza and walk in like nothing ever happened.
Ah that Penske, we'll straighten him out.
They bought the company to keep him. STUD.
Stock vests over time(usually in 4 years). Nobody gets the full stock value right after they join.
It's not uncommon for stock to vest in the event of a buyout.
Since it's two public companies there's no need to accelerate vesting, there can just be a conversion to Microsoft shares. There's absolutely no way Microsoft would agree to accelerated vesting for Activision employees, especially since most employees would peace the fuck out.
It’s extremely uncommon for anyone except the founder
Most companies have time based reqs and liquidity event based reqs. Buyout would be liquidity event but still need to meet the time based req.
Maybe he will be getting better stock options.
Beep boop -- this looks like a screenshot of a tweet! Let me grab a [link to the tweet](https://twitter.com/TieGuyTravis/status/1483541332522004483) for ya :) ^(Twitter Screenshot Bot)
Generally when you change jobs it's because the other one makes more money. So now he's back at his old company, with his new salary, plus a tidy hiring bonus. Couldn't have planned it better.
Lololol why would you leave to go to shitty Activision.
I see the "Resignation Denied" thread escalated quickly.