One other large announcement for online game developer Activision Blizzard: President and COO Daniel Alegre is stepping down to hitch Web3 studio Yuga Labs as the brand new Chief Govt Officer. Alegre joins Yuga within the first half of 2023 and can change present CEO Nicole Muniz, who will proceed to work for Yuga as a strategic advisor.
Daniel Alegre has a powerful trajectory in tech firms, as he labored at Google for 16 years, occupying numerous prime govt positions. He joined Activision Blizzard in April 2020 as President and Chief Working Officer, the second-highest function after the CEO (Bobby Kotick).
As COO, Alegre supervised the commercialization of well-liked online game franchises corresponding to Diablo, World of Warcraft, Name of Responsibility, and Sweet Crush.
“He brings worthwhile expertise throughout leisure, e-commerce, and international strategic partnerships — all of that are important features of an immersive web3 world constructed by creators and for creators,”
stated Wylie Aronow, the co-founder of Yuga Labs.
The announcement relating to Alegre’s departure was disclosed by Activision final Friday. The information comes as a shock as a result of lower than two weeks in the past, the Federal Commerce Fee (FTC) filed a lawsuit in opposition to Microsoft, making an attempt to dam the corporate’s $69 billion takeover of Activision.
Even if Yuga Labs is likely one of the prime NFT studios, having created the Bored Ape Yacht Membership and proudly owning blue-chip NFT collections corresponding to CryptoPunks and Meebits, the NFT market is at the moment experiencing a droop because of the ongoing crypto winter. The ground costs, in addition to the gross sales quantity of blue-chip collections, are down over 90% from a yr in the past.
Little question Alegre can have a tricky problem because the CEO, managing Yuga’s present tasks, corresponding to BAYC’s metaverse Otherside, and searching for new alternatives within the bear market.
One other necessary matter for Yuga Labs is the continued investigation by the SEC, which accuses the corporate of violating federal regulation by promoting unregistered digital property.
In November, Yuga Labs had a shocking addition to the corporate – the well-known digital artist Beeple joined the corporate as an advisor. On the similar time, Yuga Labs acquired Beeple’s NFT studio WENEW Labs, creator of the favored NFT mission 10KTF.