It appears Neumann's contract at Activision Blizzard was terminated because of a breach of his employment agreement in connection to this move. Neumann will replace 14-year Netflix veteran David Wells in the CFO position.Activision Blizzard has placed the company's chief financial officer, Spencer Neumann, on a paid leave of absence after informing him that it intends to terminate him from his position.
CNBC reports the share price for Activision Blizzard dropped by 1 percent after the news became public of the company's plans. This did not help the company's 26 percent total share loss over the past year.
The details of the plans to let Neumann go can be found in a regulatory filing made by Activision Blizzard. It states that the termination is unrelated to the Company's financial reporting or disclosure controls and procedures. It also states that the paid leave of absence is in place to allow Neumann to demonstrate there is no cause to terminate his employment.During this time, and effective as of the new year, former CFO Dennis Durkin, who is now the current chief corporate officer, will take over Neumann's duties. If Neumann doesn't regain his role as CFO after the paid leave, then Durkin will take over permanently.
A source close to the issue has said that this all occurred after Netflix had poached Neumann to take on the role as CFO at the streaming company. Neumann also worked at Disney prior to coming on as CFO at Activision Blizzard. As of yet, Activision Blizzard has not made any comments on such reports.
This also comes after Blizzard Entertainment seemed to suddenly announce it would pull back further development on it's MOBA Heroes of the Storm. The company also had a turbulent time at its recent Blizzcon 2018 where it received a lot of public backlash after it announced the new Diablo mobile title Diablo Immortal. This landed it a place in our 8 huge gaming disappointments of 2018 list. Hope Corrigan is an Australian freelance writer for IGN. You can follow her on Facebook, Twitter, and Twitch.
