Shakeup at Activision

The Santa Monica-based videogame publisher has restructured its senior management group without announcing it, reports the LAT.

As outlined in internal memos obtained by the Times, Santa Monica-based Activision Blizzard Inc. has divided itself into four units, with one focused on the military video game Call of Duty, another handling other internally owned properties such as Guitar Hero and the Tony Hawk skateboarding games, and a third handling licensed properties. Blizzard Entertainment, maker of the successful online game World of Warcraft, remains an independent unit.

In addition, Activision executive Mike Griffith has been named vice chairman and Thomas Tippl becomes COO. Only Tippi's promotion was noted in an SEC filing. Corporate restructurings fall into a grey area of what the SEC considers to be a "material event" - that is, important enough for shareholders to be notified through the filing of an 8-K. Thing is, the news wasn't kept secret within the company; emails announcing the changes went out last week. Activision has gone through an up-and-down stretch, with "Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2" generating more than $1 billion in sales, but "Guitar Hero" taking a dive in recent months.