Two weeks after Activision Blizzard’s layoffs, its stock price is barely higher than before the layoffs

You all remember when Activision Blizzard laid off 800 employees on a year that was, on balance, a very good year for the company? Of course you do. And you probably also remember that the presumed reason for doing so was to bolster the company’s stock after it had fallen to a two-year low, at $40.11 per share. It was a hideous decision made for poor reasons, but at least it bolstered the company’s stock, so you could understand it on that level.

Except that it didn’t. It’s been two weeks since the mass layoff and the company’s stock is (as of this writing) sitting at $41.50 per share, scarcely higher than before the massive layoffs that have drawn widespread criticism. (For comparison, six months ago the stock sat at $74.09 per share.) We are admittedly not privy to all of the behind-the-scenes negotiation and planning that goes on at Activision Blizzard, but this does not seem to have quite been the intended set of consequences.

So, 11 days after the layoffs, the resulting bump in Activision's stock value is already nearly gone pic.twitter.com/3oMHCFQoQq

— Steve (@steve_coan) February 24, 2019