Following the completion of the Activision and Blizzard merger, the publisher’s CFO Thomas Tippl has revealed to MCV that it is now creating an “all-star team” from the staff of the two companies – but admitted that “overlaps” will lead to redundancies, and hinted that the sales teams could be the first affected.

In an exclusive interview with MCV, Tippl claimed that the Activision Blizzard operation will need to shed staff in the short term – but softened the blow by pointing out that the company’s headcount is likely to grow in the future.

“With every merger, there is overlap and redundancy, and so the same will be true here. Of course we’re going to go to our customers with one face. We don’t need two sales forces,” he explained.

“Having said that, if you look at our industry, it’s rapidly growing – last year it grew 30 per cent. So over time I expect our headcount to grow.”

“But in the short term we will exterminate some of our overlap through redundancy – but we will treat people respectfully.”

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“We will try to put the best team together – the all-star team. We’ll update both companies’ skill and experience levels and become a formidable company,” he added.

To read the full interview with Thomas Tippl, click here.