Activision Blizzard’s president steps down, moving to Yuga Labs

Activision Blizzard’s president and chief operating officer, Daniel Alegre, has been confirmed to leave the company. The game publisher already announced his departure last week, citing his contract expiration on March 31, 2023.

As per Bloomberg, Alegre joined the company in April 2020, and before this, he was an executive at Google for 16 years. With the confirmation of his exit from Activision Blizzard, Yuga Labs Inc., the blockchain firm behind the Bored Ape Yacht Club NFT collection, announced that it has hired Alegre to be its new chief executive officer.

The Miami-headquartered blockchain tech company that develops non-fungible tokens and digital collectibles said that the outgoing president and COO of Activision Blizzard will start working for them within the first half of 2023.

Alegre is leaving Activision amid the ongoing internal issues which it is trying to solve. The video game firm that is known for its “Overwatch,” “Call of Duty,” “Diablo,” and “World of Warcraft” game titles is currently reorganizing to reshape its corporate culture after it was beset with sexual misconduct scandals last year.

It is now waiting for approval if Microsoft Corp. can proceed with its bid to buy the company for $69 billion. The acquisition deal still needs to be reviewed by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission.

In any case, Alegre is moving to Yuga Labs, which is now one of the most talked about startups in the cryptocurrency and blockchain sector. It was only established last year but was already valued at $4 billion in March this year after a $450 million funding round that month.

He will be replacing Yuga Lab’s chief, Nicole Muniz. While he is vacating his seat as the company’s CEO, he will stay as a partner and an adviser.

“Nicole, Greg, and I have been on the hunt for someone with Daniel’s skill set for some time. The business, our ambitions, and the complexity of the work have grown beyond our wildest expectations,” Wylie Aronow, Yuga Labs’ co-founder, said in a press release. “We are thrilled to have him join the team to help with our vision of a truly interoperable metaverse. Daniel has held one of the highest level roles at one of the largest gaming companies in the world.”