Videogame voice actors poised to strike as they battle AI for their jobs

Hollywood is bracing for another actors strike, this time against the videogame industry.

“We’re currently in bargaining with all the major game studios, and the major sticking point is AI,” SAG-AFTRA National Executive Director Duncan Crabtree-Ireland said Thursday. “Actors at all levels are at risk of digital replication. We have strike authorization on that contract and it is, at this point — we could end up going on strike.”

Voice actor Sarah Elmaleh chairs the union’s interactive-media-agreement negotiating committee. “I’ve seen nothing like this in technology to impact our jobs,” she said. “A replicated voice cannot display a spectrum of emotions — yet. For now, it is technology based on averaging and best questions. It lacks nuance.”

The union, which navigated its way to a new film and TV contract after a 118-day strike against the Hollywood studios last year, is again focusing on regulating artificial intelligence and its impact on wages and jobs. “It will be a recurring issue with each successive contract” every three years, Crabtree-Ireland said.

Companies facing a possible strike are Microsoft Corp.’s Activision Publishing, Blindlight LLC, Disney Character Voices International Inc. Electronic Arts Inc. Epic Games Inc., Formosa Interactive LLC, Insomniac Games Inc., Take 2 Productions, VoiceWorks Productions Inc. and Warner Bros. Games

“Actors and actresses should be very much afraid,” Chris Mattmann, an adjunct research professor at the University of Southern California’s Computer Science Department, said in an interview. “Within three seconds, gen AI can effectively clone a voice.”

Videogame studios pay professional actors to voice the aliens, detectives, elves and monsters that inhabit virtual worlds. But increasingly, some are employing realistic, AI-generated voices to save money. And that has cut into actors’ work.

It’s been more than a year since the Interactive Media Agreement, the guild’s videogame contract, was extended beyond its original expiration date. SAG-AFTRA’s last strike against the gaming companies, in 2016-17, lasted about six months.

In September, members overwhelmingly approved a strike authorization on the current contract. The national board has authority to call a strike at any time if negotiations fail.

A spokesperson representing the 10 videogame companies said they are optimistic that a resolution will be reached.

“We are continuing to negotiate in good faith and have made tremendous progress. We have reached tentative agreements on the vast majority of proposals and remain optimistic that we can reach a deal soon,” the spokesperson said in a statement to MarketWatch.

AI horror stories abound

When it comes to AI, Hollywood has been as fraught with tension as any industry — even tech, media or customer service.

A flashpoint came in 2014, when Baidu Inc.’s DeepSpeech technology first converted speech into text. Fast-forward to today, and dialect, inflection and connotation have been refined with voice clones.

“It was the No. 1 topic of discussion at a [voice-over] conference in Atlanta this month,” Joe Davis, a board member of World Voices Organization, the international trade association of voice actors, said in an interview. “Everybody is concerned about AI. It looks like the low end of the market is going away. Where are people going to start in the industry then? In the last six months, the majority of those jobs are going to AI.”

Also read: Tennessee becomes first state to protect musicians and other artists against AI

Marquee actors like Bradley Cooper — the voice of Rocket Raccoon in Marvel’s “Guardians of the Galaxy” — need not be worried, but many cartoon and videogame voice actors are looking at reductions in salary and in the number of jobs.

Most at risk are the thousands of working actors who earn anywhere from $100 a gig to tens of thousands of dollars a year on a project. Increasingly, many are either seeing their roles de-emphasized or are losing jobs altogether to digitally replicated voices similar to their own.

“It’s scary. We don’t know where things are going. Just in the last year, the progression has been insane,” said Rebecca Davis, a videogame voice actor who plays a time weaver in Oculus’s “Asgard’s Wrath 2” and member of SAG-AFTRA. “As far as I know, my voice has not been replicated, but things are popping up with videogames. We don’t really know sometimes, until someone notifies you. The company doesn’t tell you.”

Diana Birdsall, a nonunion voice actor of about 20 years, was abruptly replaced by AI on a phone-messaging service a year ago. The gig had paid $17,000 to $20,000 annually. Just as she was getting over the shock of losing that work, she learned last week that she may have lost a $25,000-a-year job making medical-explainer videos to another AI “voice.”

“There is no compensating for this” loss in revenue, Birdsall said in an interview. “I have to work my butt off more, and I’ve been told I have to sound more authentic. Are you kidding me?”

In 2021, Bev Standing, a nonunion voice actor, successfully sued TikTok owner ByteDance Ltd. for using her voice without her consent.

In her more than 20 years as an actor, including as a voice-over actor, Laurie Burke has done thousands of voice-overs for the likes of Facebook LinkedIn, Apple Inc. and Amazon.com Inc. She started as the original voice of Google Voice and later played an AI voice in the movie “Jexi.”

“AI can’t replicate the emotion of a voice,” Burke said in an interview. “It’s kind of like the drum machine. Drums cannot be improvised.”

SAG-AFTRA's Duncan Crabtree-Ireland On The State Of Negotiations With Video Game Industry & Possible Strike: "We're Getting To The End Of The Road"

Story by Katie Campione

 • Deadline

Will Hollywood experience another actors strike in the coming months?

After more than a year of negotiating with the video game companies on a new Interactive Media Agreement, SAG-AFTRA National Executive Director Duncan Crabtree-Ireland indicated the guild might soon be walking away from the table due to sticking points regarding artificial intelligence.

"We have strike authorization on that contract and it is, at this point, at least 50/50, if not more likely, that we end up going on strike…in the next four to six weeks because of the inability to get past these basic AI issues," he said during a conversation with Brendan Vaughan, Editor-in-Chief of Fast Company, at SXSW focused on the intersection of Hollywood and AI.

In September, members overwhelmingly authorized a strike authorization on this current contract.

This is talk of another strike comes on the heels of the actors' 118-day work stoppage last year to achieve the latest film and TV contract, which did manage several gains when it comes to language regulating artificial intelligence. Many of the issues between the two contracts are similar, including wages and AI.

Following the panel, Crabtree-Ireland spoke with Deadline about the state of negotiations on the Interactive Media Agreement and how imminent a strike may actually be.

DEADLINE: You mentioned that some "basic AI issues" were the current sticking points in the video game negotiations. Can you expand upon what those issues are?

DUNCAN CRABTREE-IRELAND: I think some of them are very similar [to the film and TV contract issues], but I think the one that I mentioned [that is different], is applying AI protections to creature performers and other types of movement performers that don't have lines. They don't speak but are creating a performance and really central to the action of the game. I think that is an area where we haven't been able to achieve the results we need just yet. We've been in this bargaining for over a year. The results of the strike last year did move things a little bit in the right direction. A couple of the major video game companies are companies that are also part of the AMPTP, specifically Disney and Warner Brothers, for example. But I think what has to be recognized is that all performers should be entitled to the same type of AI protections and companies that are trying to distinguish performers from other performers and say, ‘Only some of them are gonna get protections and not the others…' That's not something we're going to be able to go along with.

DEADLINE: I know you had hoped the Replica Studios agreement might move things along. Did that yield any progress in these negotiations?

CRABTREE-IRELAND: I mean, I think the movement that we see is really the pressure that comes from having other legit companies in the space saying, ‘We can work with this, and we've signed a deal that says we will work with this.' So I think that creates pressure. On the other hand, these are very big companies, the ones that we're talking about in this bargaining group. So they aren't necessarily always as nimble as you might like. And of course, the acquisition of Activision Blizzard by Microsoft, it remains to be seen what impact that might have on the landscape.

DEADLINE: As you said, these negotiations have been ongoing for more than a year. You've had a strike authorization since September. What is indicating to you now that there could or should be a strike?

CRABTREE-IRELAND: I mean, a strike is always the last resort for us. So when we see that there is progress, or we see there's movement, then we always want to explore how far we can take that before we pull the trigger on a strike. It just feels like we're getting to the end of the road. Movement is sort of stopped. And if we're not where we need to be, and we're not getting indications from the companies that they are going to be prepared to move where we need to go, then that pretty much tells us what we need to know.

DEADLINE: So what indications would you need to know the companies are serious about moving forward?

CRABTREE-IRELAND: If the negotiating team on their side gives us some kind of concrete indications of new proposals or…new movement on the proposals that are on the table. That'd be the kind of thing that we would take into account, but this has been a really long process. So we also aren't going to just let it drag on indefinitely. The reality is if the companies are not going to go there without us taking that step, then we'll take that step.


DEADLINE: About how many SAG-AFTRA members would be affected by this strike?

CRABTREE-IRELAND: It would affect thousands in total. Not as many as the film and television strike obviously, but a substantial amount of our members are engaged in production work, whether it's voice work or performance capture, or on camera performance work for these companies. So I expect it would affect quite a significant number of people fairly quickly.

DEADLINE: You are speaking on another panel about AI soon, and this panel is one of many you've participated in. How do these panels and conversations shape your perception of AI regulations as you look to the future of all SAG-AFTRA negotiations?

CRABTREE-IRELAND: It's great to get the chance to hear from members everywhere about what their experiences are, because I don't think everyone's experience engaging with AI is the same. But I also think it's part of our role to help to help prompt a dialogue in the industry about what AI ought to look like and how it ought to be implemented, and it would be wrong for us to let only the companies dominate that conversation. There's too much of that already in the tech world and too much of it in our world. So I think what we need is the balance in that conversation. And whenever I get the chance to help balance that conversation out, I'll take it. I know my colleagues from other unions are doing the same as well.

DEADLINE: Anything else you wanted to add?

CRABTREE-IRELAND: Our new tiered agreements for indie game developers [are] really gaining quickly traction in the indie industry, because they there's a recognition that the permissions are really quite reasonable and not hard to work with. I'm going to be speaking on a panel at GDC, and we'll also be there helping make sure that the entire indie game community is very well aware of our tiered agreements. I think that will - to your point - also provide work opportunities for our members in the event we go on strike, because, just like with interim agreements last year, any companies who are willing to have fair terms, we're happy for our members to continue working with them during that process.


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JOBS VS DIVIDENDS
Video game giant Electronic Arts announces job cuts


By AFP
February 29, 2024

Video game publisher Electronic Arts says it is 'sunsetting' some old titles and stopping work on new intellectual property that does not look promising - Copyright GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA/AFP Christian Petersen

Electronic Arts on Wednesday said it is cutting about 5 percent of its workforce, as belt tightening continues in the video game and tech industries.

The California company behind hits including soccer game “FC24” is also “sunsetting” some titles and stopping development of others it thinks will not be successful, chief executive Andrew Wilson said in a message to employees posted online.

“We are streamlining our company operations to deliver deeper, more connected experiences for fans everywhere that build community, shape culture, and grow fandom,” Wilson said.

“In this time of change, we expect these decisions to impact approximately 5 percent of our workforce.”

The company’s annual report last year indicated it had 13,400 employees, meaning about 670 positions are being eliminated.

The announcement came a day after Sony said it was cutting 8 percent of its global workforce, as video game makers find they’re not immune to the wave of layoffs seen recently in the tech industry.

Calling it “sad news,” PlayStation chief Jim Ryan said that the Sony reductions would affect 900 people across the globe, including video game studios.

A separate statement said that US studios Insomniac Games and Naughty Dog, part of PlayStation’s stable, were hit by the job cuts.

Microsoft in January said it was laying off 1,900 people, or eight percent of staff, from its gaming division, following its acquisition of Activision Blizzard.

Last year the wider tech industry lost 260,000 jobs according to layoffs.fyi, a California-based website that tracks the sector.

So far this year, layoffs are at 45,356, the site showed, from 176 companies.

 

U.S. FTC queries AI deals by Amazon, OpenAI, Microsoft, Anthropic

Leah Nylen, Bloomberg News

Alphabet Inc., Amazon.com Inc. and Microsoft Corp. must provide information to the US Federal Trade Commission on their investments and partnerships with artificial intelligence startups Anthropic PBC and OpenAI Inc. as part of an agency study announced Thursday.

The antitrust and consumer protection agency said it sent subpoenas to the companies to gather information on how the development of AI is impacting the competitive landscape. The inquiry focuses on more than US$19 billion in investments by Microsoft, Amazon and Google, in a series of transactions that cemented alliances between the world’s cloud services giants with the leading providers of artificial intelligence software.

Antitrust enforcers across the world have become concerned as many of the most promising AI startups now depend heavily on the old guard of dominant tech companies for their financing and infrastructure needs.

In comments during a public workshop Thursday, FTC Chair Lina Khan said the agency is closely monitoring the industry and warned that AI companies “cannot use claims of innovation as cover for law breaking.”

“There is no AI exemption from the laws on the books,” she said.

Google and Anthropic declined to comment. Microsoft, Amazon, and OpenAI didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.

The inquiry comes as technology giants take a bigger role in backing nimble AI startups in a bid to claim a stake in the booming sector. Over the past year, Microsoft has revamped nearly all of its products around AI tools powered by OpenAI’s AI mode, while Google has said it has plans to embed its most powerful large language model, Gemini, into its experimental search tool sometime this year.

Microsoft has invested more than $13 billion in the ChatGPT maker OpenAI and the ouster of its CEO Sam Altman in November exposed how inextricably linked Microsoft and the company have become. Those ties have spurred antitrust reviews in both the UK and the European Union.

Meanwhile, Anthropic was founded in 2021 by former OpenAI employees, who left the company amid differences over the direction of the business. Alphabet’s Google in October committed to back it with $2 billion, and earlier this year Amazon agreed to an investment of as much as $4 billion.

The FTC is conducting the inquiry under its so-called 6(b) authority that allows it to issue subpoenas to conduct market studies. The agency generally issues a report on its findings after analyzing the information from companies, though that process can take years to complete. The agency is still finalizing the results of studies on pharmaceutical middlemen and supply chains that it started in 2021 and 2022.  

Although the information is collected for research purposes, the FTC can use any details it gleans to open official investigations or aid in existing probes. Last summer, the agency opened an investigation into whether OpenAI has violated consumer protection laws with its popular ChatGPT conversational AI bot.

The FTC and its sister agency, the Justice Department, share jurisdiction over antitrust probes and have been debating internally which should take the lead on the AI. The Justice Department has generally handled antitrust issues related to Microsoft since its blockbuster monopolization case against the Windows maker in the late 1990s. The FTC, however, recently handled Microsoft’s acquisition of game developer Activision Blizzard Inc.

In addition, the European Commission is looking into some of the agreements that have been concluded between large digital market players and generative AI developers and providers. The European Commission is investigating the impact of these partnerships on market dynamics.

With assistance from Shirin Ghaffary, Julia Love, Matt Day and Jackie Davalos.

Microsoft cuts 1,900 jobs in gaming, including at Activision

Jason Schreier, Bloomberg

Microsoft Corp. will lay off 1,900 people across its video-game divisions including at Activision Blizzard, which it purchased for US$69 billion in an acquisition that closed late last year.

In an email to staff reviewed by Bloomberg, Microsoft gaming chief Phil Spencer wrote that the cuts represented about eight per cent of Microsoft’s 22,000 gaming workers. The Verge first reported the news. Other video game companies, including Riot Games, have also enacted mass layoffs.

“Together, we’ve set priorities, identified areas of overlap, and ensured that we’re all aligned on the best opportunities for growth,” Spencer wrote.

Blizzard Entertainment is also making big changes as part of the cuts, cancelling a survival game codenamed Odyssey and parting ways with President Mike Ybarra and Chief Design Officer Allen Adham, the company’s co-founder.

In a note to staff, Microsoft Studios President Matt Booty said that Ybarra “has decided to leave the company.” At the BlizzCon convention in November, Ybarra said in an interview that he wanted to stay at the company for the long haul. “Someone will drag me out of Blizzard,” he said. “That’s how long I will be here.”

On Thursday, Ybarra announced his departure in a post on X, the website formerly known as Twitter. “Having already spent 20+ years at Microsoft and with the acquisition of Activision Blizzard behind us, it’s time for me to (once again) become Blizzard’s biggest fan from the outside,” Ybarra wrote. 

The moves arrived just three months after Microsoft finalized the Activision Blizzard acquisition. In an email to staff reviewed by Bloomberg, Activision Publishing chief Rob Kostich wrote that the cuts were made “to reset and re-align our resources for the future.”

Google’s Epic legal defeat threatens $200 billion app store industry


Mark Gurman and Davey Alba
Mon, December 11, 2023 

(Bloomberg) — Google’s legal defeat at the hands of Fortnite maker Epic Games Inc. threatens to roil an app store duopoly with Apple Inc. that generates close to $200 billion a year and dictates how billions of consumers use mobile devices.

The loss — handed down by a San Francisco jury on Monday — is a blow to the two companies’ business model in apps, where they charge commissions of as much as 30% to software developers who typically have few other options.

Epic has spent years railing against the practice and got a federal jury to agree that Alphabet Inc.’s Google unit had acted unfairly as a monopoly. The case is likely to accelerate the weakening of app store rules, which have already come under fire from regulators and lawmakers around the world.

“The dominoes are going to start falling here,” Tim Sweeney, chief executive officer of Epic, said in an interview after the verdict. “The end of 30% is in sight.”

Though Apple won a similar case against Epic in 2021, that ruling was made by a single judge. The nature of the Google suit — where a jury sided unanimously with Epic — let actual consumers weigh in on the world of smartphone apps. In under four hours of deliberations, they found that Google had engaged in anticompetitive conduct, harmed Epic and illegally forced its own billing system on developers.

The battle began in 2020, when Fortnite was kicked off the Apple and Google Play app stores because the game developer had secretly installed its own payment system. The idea was to bypass the up-to-30% revenue share that the two tech giants take from in-app purchases and subscriptions on their platforms. In response, Epic sued both companies.

The popular video game "Fortnite" by Epic Games pictured on a screen. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid/Illustration (Brendan McDermid / reuters)

Google also has drawn criticism for making side deals with big developers like Spotify Technology SA where it offers lower commissions. In Monday’s decision, the jury found that Google shouldn’t require Android app developers to use its billing system for software sold through its store — and that it shouldn’t offer custom agreements to certain developers.

“The immediate aftereffect is we will see a shift in the marketplace where big tech companies will have to make accommodations — whether it is more access, better terms, more options for developers — to stave off legal exposure,” said Paul Swanson, a partner at Holland & Hart who specializes in technology and antitrust law.

Read More: Google Loses Antitrust Fight With Fortnite Maker Over App Store

The case also underscores a sentiment among many consumers that major technology companies have gained too much power. Google also faced scrutiny from a Justice Department judge this fall over its power in search, though the outcome of that trial won’t be clear for months.

Epic’s Sweeney predicted that — as Google starts making changes to its operations and public pressure mounts — its app store peer will be forced to act as well. “The same thing will start happening with Apple,” he said.

And that will ultimately help consumers, Sweeney said. “The economics is real,” he said. “When you remove a 30% tax from an ecosystem, consumer prices will get better. Or quality will get better and selection will increase.”

Tim Sweeney, chief executive officer of Epic

During the case, Epic highlighted agreements Google reached with top game developers, including Activision Blizzard Inc. and Nintendo Co., for smaller fees. Every developer should now demand one of those deals, Sweeney said.

There’s a fortune at stake for both Apple and Google. In-app spending is forecast to reach $182 billion next year and $207 billion in 2025, according to research firm Sensor Tower.

Already, the Digital Markets Act in the European Union will spur changes. For the first time, Apple will need to allow third-party app stores and billing systems in the region.

Even before that law takes effect next year, the two companies have been making adjustments. Apple now lets so-called reader apps — such as software for cloud storage, watching video and reading books — link to outside websites to let users pay. That bypasses Apple’s revenue cut.

Both Apple and Google also have changed their policies to take a commission on subscription apps. And Apple has been forced to let dating apps in the Netherlands bypass its billing system.

But the Epic win against Google has the potential to bring major changes to the companies’ home country. That includes shifting internet software back to a more open environment, rather than the app stores’ closed ecosystems, according to Stanford Law professor Mark Lemley.

“The last two decades have seen a profound shift away from the open internet towards walled gardens,” Lemley said. “That is one of the things that has kept the internet market so concentrated. This verdict just knocked a big hole in the garden wall.”

Though Apple won nine out of 10 counts against Epic when that decision was made in 2021, one issue is still up in the air: whether Apple should let all third-party developers point customers to websites to pay for purchases, bypassing Apple’s fees. It may now be harder for the iPhone maker to avoid that fate.

Google, which plans to appeal its verdict, said it “will continue to defend the Android business model and remain deeply committed to our users, partners and the broader Android ecosystem.” Apple didn’t respond to a request for comment.

Apple has said it doesn’t have any side deals with developers, though it offers discounted rates to some video streaming partners like Amazon.com Inc. During the trial, Epic’s lawyers said Google also didn’t properly retain some internal records relevant to the case.

“I don’t think there’s much of a debate that the monopoly finding with Google holds true with Apple too,” said Jason Kint, CEO of Digital Content Next, a trade association for digital content companies. “The distinction that will be pored over is whether or not Apple abused that.”

—With assistance from Leah Nylen and Malathi Nayak.

Bloomberg Businessweek

MONOPOLY CAPITALI$M
Broadcom closes its $61 billion megadeal with VMware

One of the biggest tech deals ever faced considerable regulatory scrutiny.


Steve Dent
·Reporter
Thu, November 23, 2023

SOPA Images via Getty Images

Broadcom's mega $61 billion VMware acquisition has closed following considerable scrutiny by regulators, the company announced in a press release. With China recently granting approval for the acquisition with added restrictions, the network chip manufacturer had secured all the required approvals.

"Broadcom has received legal merger clearance in Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, the European Union, Israel, Japan, South Africa, South Korea, Taiwan, the United Kingdom, and foreign investment control clearance in all necessary jurisdictions," the company said. "We are excited to welcome VMware to Broadcom and bring together our engineering-first, innovation-centric teams."

The Broadcom/VMware deal lacked the glamour of tech's other mega acquisition involving Microsoft and Activision. However, San Jose-based Broadcom's products form the structure of much of the internet, as they're widely used for data centers, cloud providers and network infrastructure. VMware, meanwhile, makes virtualization and cloud computing software that allows corporations to safely link local networks with public cloud access.

That made VMware a logical target for Broadcom, but it also placed the acquisition in the crosshairs of regulators in multiple regions. The European Commission, for one, was concerned that Broadcom could harm competition by limiting interoperability between rival hardware and VMware's server virtualization software. It also worried the company could either prevent or degrade access to VMware's software, or bundle VMware with its own hardware products.

Broadcom gained EU approval for the deal in the summer though, mainly by providing IP access and source code for key network fiber optic components to its main rival, Marvell. The EU also concluded that fears of VMware bundling were unfounded and that Broadcom would still face competition in the storage adapter and NIC markets.

There were also concerns that tensions between China and the US could scuttle the deal, after the Biden administration announced new rules in October making it harder to export high-end chips to China. However, approval in that market was announced yesterday, with conditions imposed by China on how Broadcom sells products locally. Namely, it had to ensure that VMware's server software was interoperable with rival hardware, China's regulator said in a statement.

Broadcom closes $69 billion VMware deal after China approval

Harshita Mary Varghese
Wed, November 22, 2023 

(Reuters) — Broadcom on Wednesday closed its $69 billion acquisition of cloud-computing firm VMware after receiving regulatory approval in last major market China and ending a months-long saga.

The deal, one of the biggest globally when announced in May 2022, was the latest in CEO Hock Tan's efforts to boost the chipmaker's software business.

However, the transaction faced tough regulatory scrutiny across the world and the companies had delayed the closing date three times.

China's regulatory approval came through on Tuesday after ongoing tensions with the U.S. around tougher chip export control measures had stoked fears among some investors on the company's ability to close the deal before the Nov. 26 deadline.

"The improved mood music after the meeting between China's President Xi Jinping and U.S. President Joe Biden earlier this month helped to settle remaining nerves," Danni Hewson, head of financial analysis at AJ Bell, said on Tuesday, after the companies said they planned to close the transaction on Nov. 22.

President Joe Biden greets China's President President Xi Jinping at the Filoli Estate in Woodside, Calif. on Nov, 15. (Doug Mills/ The New York Times via AP) 

The European Commission had approved the acquisition after Broadcom offered remedies to help rival Marvell Technology while the UK's Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) gave its green light following an in-depth investigation.

"Perhaps we will see some boards being willing to move forward now that we have seen the (Activision Blizzard) and (VMware) get blessing, but don't think we can count on it," said Cabot Henderson, market strategist at JonesTrading, on Tuesday.

Big Tech mergers such as Microsoft's now-closed $69 billion purchase of the "Call of Duty" publisher Activision have faced heightened regulatory pressure from the U.S. Federal Trade Commission under its Chair Lina Khan.

(Reporting by Harshita Mary Varghese; Editing by Sriraj Kalluvila)

 

Broadcom planning to complete deal for $69 billion acquisition of VMWare after regulators give OK

November 22, 2023 



SAN JOSE, California (AP) — Computer chip and software maker Broadcom has announced it has cleared all regulatory hurdles and plans to complete its $69 billion acquisition of cloud technology company VMware on Wednesday.

The company, based in San Jose, California, announced the plan after China joined the list of countries that had given a go-ahead for the acquisition.

The announcement came soon after Microsoft acquired video game-maker Activision Blizzard for $69 billion, in one of the most expensive tech acquisitions in history. It took 18 months for Broadcom to get all the regulatory approvals.

The massive buyouts are occurring at a time of heightened anxiety because of turmoil on the global supply chain, war in Europe and the Middle East, and rising prices that have the potential to cool both business and consumer activity.

Broadcom's acquisition plan earlier gained approval from Britain’s competition regulator.

Countless businesses and public bodies, including major banks, big retailers, telecom operators and government departments, rely on Broadcom gear and VMware software. The European Commission, the EU’s executive arm and top antitrust enforcer, cleared the deal after Broadcom made concessions to address its concerns about competition.

Broadcom wants to establish a stronger foothold in the cloud computing market, and VMware’s technology allows large corporations to blend public cloud access with internal company networks. VMware, which is based in Palo Alto, California, has close relations with every major cloud company and provider, including Amazon, Google and Microsoft.

In a statement, Broadcom said it had legal greenlights in Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, the European Union, Israel, Japan, South Africa, South Korea, Taiwan, the United Kingdom, and “foreign investment control clearance in all necessary jurisdictions.”

"There is no legal impediment to closing under U.S. merger regulations,” it said.

There has been a flurry of such deals after technology companies' shares fell from stratospheric levels attained during the pandemic, making such acquisitions more affordable.

Broadcom's CEO, Hock Tan, has been among the most aggressive buyers, building out the company with big acquisitions in recent years like Symantec for close to $11 billion in 2019, and CA Technologies for about $19 billion the previous year.

 

LinkedIn lays off about 3% of workforce

16 October 2023, 

LinkedIn stock. Picture: PA

The Microsoft-owned career network is cutting about 668 roles across its engineering, product, talent and finance teams.

LinkedIn has said it is laying off hundreds of employees amounting to about 3% of the social media company’s workforce.

The Microsoft-owned career network is cutting about 668 roles across its engineering, product, talent and finance teams.

“Talent changes are a difficult but necessary and regular part of managing our business,” the company said in a statement.

The job cuts follow more than 700 announced in May, as well as thousands more this year from parent company Microsoft, which has owned the professional networking service since buying it for 26 billion dollars (£21 billion) in 2016.

LinkedIn keeps growing and said its annual revenue surpassed 15 billion dollars (£12 billion) for the first time in the fiscal year ending in June.

The service, headquartered in Sunnyvale, California, makes money from advertisements on the platform as well as from users who pay to subscribe for premium features.

LinkedIn reports having about 19,500 employees.

Microsoft had a global workforce of 221,000 full-time employees in July, more than half in the US.

It is adding thousands more as part of its 69 billion dollar (£56 billion) acquisition of video game-maker Activision Blizzard, which closed on Friday.

As of late last year, Activision Blizzard reported having 13,000 employees.

By Press Association

This San Francisco Social Media Giant Is Cutting Hundreds of Jobs

Written by Kevin TruongPublished Oct. 16, 2023 • 

LinkedIn is laying off more than 660 positions in its second major round of layoffs this year. | Source:Justin Sullivan/Getty Image

LinkedIn is laying off more than 660 employees, marking the second major round of job cuts this year at the professional social media company, according to an announcement Monday.

The layoffs across the company’s engineering, product, talent and finance teams are equivalent to around 3% of LinkedIn’s global workforce. The company positioned the job cuts as part of a broader restructuring ostensibly meant to make the organization more efficient. 

"Talent changes are a difficult, but necessary and regular part of managing our business," LinkedIn said in a statement.

The news comes just a few months after LinkedIn said it would lay off 716 employees and shut down InCareer, its China jobs app. 

The company has also started to downsize its local real estate holdings, placing a portion of its Downtown San Francisco skyscraper on the sublease market. 

LinkedIn, which was purchased by Microsoft in 2016 for $26.2 billion, has continued to grow its user base on the platform, reaching 950 million members around the world. 

During Microsoft’s last public earnings call, the company reported that LinkedIn’s annual revenue had surpassed $15 billion. 

In line with Microsoft’s larger corporate strategy around artificial intelligence, LinkedIn has released a number of AI-based tools to help with recruiting, content generation and career coaching. 

Kevin Truong can be reached at kevin@sfstandard.com

MONOPOLY CAPITALI$M

Microsoft spent two years trying to buy Activision Blizzard. For Xbox CEO, that was the easy part

by Matt O'brien

Xbox CEO Phil Spencer arrives at the Phillip Burton Federal Building and U.S. Courthouse on June 28, 2023 in San Francisco. After two years co-piloting the biggest acquisition in video game history past an onslaught of challenges, Spencer now moves on to his next quest: making Microsoft's takeover of Activision Blizzard worth the hassle. 

Credit: AP Photo/Noah Berger, File

After two years co-piloting the biggest acquisition in video game history past an onslaught of challenges, Xbox CEO Phil Spencer now moves on to his next quest: making Microsoft's takeover of Activision Blizzard worth the hassle.

Microsoft, which owns the Xbox gaming system, closed its $69 billion deal to buy game-maker Activision Blizzard on Friday after fending off global opposition from antitrust regulators and rivals.

It marks a career-defining moment for Spencer, who first joined Microsoft as an intern in 1988 and has helmed Xbox since 2014. After years of lagging behind rival Sony's PlayStation, acquiring Activision's collection of popular game titles gives Microsoft a rare chance to catch up.

"His job really just starts today," said analyst Gil Luria, technology strategist at D.A. Davidson, after the deal's closure. "All he's been doing is preparing for today where he actually gets to integrate the business."

And it marks the end of an era for Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick, who's led the Southern California maker of Call of Duty and other blockbuster franchises since 1991 after helping to buy it from bankruptcy. Kotick said he's assisting with the transition until the end of the year.

Activision Blizzard was still reeling from worker protests, lawsuits and government investigations over allegations of workplace harassment against women and unequal pay when Microsoft privately reached out about buying the company in 2021.
Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick leaves the Phillip Burton Federal Building and U.S. Courthouse in San Francisco on June 28, 2023. Microsoft, which owns the Xbox gaming system, closed its $69 billion deal to buy game-maker Activision Blizzard on Friday. It marks the end of an era for Kotick, who's led the Southern California maker of Call of Duty since 1991. Credit: AP Photo/Noah Berger, File

When the companies announced a planned merger in January 2022, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella made clear it would be "critical for Activision Blizzard to drive forward" on its commitments to improve its workplace culture.

That was just the start of Microsoft's challenges in bringing home the deal. After negotiations with Spencer faltered, top rival Sony brought its concerns about losing access to the Call of Duty franchise to regulators around the world. The strongest opposition came from U.S. antitrust enforcers emboldened by President Joe Biden's administration to take a tougher look at big tech deals, as well as their counterparts in the United Kingdom who finally relented in approving the deal Friday only after Microsoft agreed to make concessions.

"Microsoft didn't have a choice. If they wanted to be long-term competitive with Sony and the PlayStation platform, they need to have a much more robust content offering," Luria said.

An image from Activision's Call of Duty is shown on a smartphone near a photograph of the Microsoft logo in this photo taken in New York, June 15, 2023. Microsoft’s purchase of video game maker Activision Blizzard won final approval Friday, Oct. 13, from Britain’s competition watchdog, reversing its earlier decision to block the $69 billion deal and removing a last obstacle for one of the largest tech transactions in history. Credit: AP Photo/Peter Morgan, File



But, "in retrospect, they should have read the writing on the wall in terms of the difficulty of closing the deal," Luria said. "They needed to do the deal to stay competitive, but knowing what they know now, they might have done it differently."

A key moment came in June, when a federal judge weighed the U.S. Federal Trade Commission's attempt to block the merger while it awaited further review. In an unusual move for a CEO that telegraphed the deal's importance, Spencer spent the better part of two weeks at the defendant table of a San Francisco courtroom conferring with Microsoft's lawyers. The judge eventually dismissed the FTC's request, though the agency is still seeking to unwind the deal.

Microsoft's success in integrating Activision's business is "not guaranteed, especially as its track record with acquisitions has been a mixed bag," said George Jijiashvili, senior principal analyst at research and advisory firm Omdia. Last year, Microsoft spent $7.5 billion to acquire ZeniMax Media, the parent company of video game publisher Bethesda Softworks, maker of Elder Scrolls and Fallout.

Scenes from "Candy Crush Saga," left, by Activision Blizzard, and "Crash Team Rumble," from Activision Publishing, are shown in this photo, in New York, Wednesday, June 21, 2023. Microsoft’s purchase of video game maker Activision Blizzard won final approval Friday, Oct. 13, from Britain’s competition watchdog, reversing its earlier decision to block the $69 billion deal and removing a last obstacle for one of the largest tech transactions in history. Credit: AP Photo/Richard Drew

Microsoft's two key game launches this year from its Bethesda merger, Redfall and Starfield, have "been met with mixed reactions at best," Jijiashvili said. "However, with globally popular game franchises such as Call of Duty now under its wing, the company is strategically much better positioned."

Another challenge for Microsoft will be overcoming the workforce challenges that dogged Activision before the takeover.

As of late last year, Activision Blizzard had 13,000 employees, about 72% in North America, according to a regulatory filing. Microsoft has already pledged it will stay neutral if the nearly 10,000 workers in the U.S. and Canada seek to organize into a labor union, part of a 2022 agreement with the Communications Workers of America meant to address U.S. political concerns about the merger's effects.

The logo for Microsoft, and a scene from Activision "Call of Duty - Modern Warfare," are shown in this photo, in New York, June 21, 2023. Microsoft’s purchase of video game maker Activision Blizzard won final approval Friday, Oct. 13, from Britain’s competition watchdog, reversing its earlier decision to block the $69 billion deal and removing a last obstacle for one of the largest tech transactions in history. Credit: AP Photo/Richard Drew, File

A sign is seen outside the Activision building in Santa Monica, Calif. on June 21, 2023. Microsoft’s purchase of video game maker Activision Blizzard won final approval Friday, Oct. 13, from Britain’s competition watchdog, reversing its earlier decision to block the $69 billion deal and removing a last obstacle for one of the largest tech transactions in history. Credit: AP Photo/Richard Vogel, File

"It is a new day for workers at Activision Blizzard," said CWA President Claude Cummings Jr. in a statement Friday.

"Over two years ago, workers at Activision Blizzard's studios captured the country's attention through walkouts and other protests over discrimination, sexual harassment, pay inequity, and other issues they were facing on the job," Cummings Jr. said. "Their efforts to form unions were met with illegal retaliation and attempts to delay and block union elections. Now these workers are free to join our union through a fair process, without interference from management."

In a Friday welcome email to Activision employees, Spencer said he wanted to "reiterate that we hold ourselves to a high bar in delivering the most inclusive and welcoming experiences for players, creators, and employees."

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