Issues With Activision Take Over of Major League Gaming

Sunday January 3,2016 : ACTIVISION'S TAKEOVER OF E-SPORTS LEAGUE CAUSING WAVES (Update)
 
Major League Gaming's CEO departs as stakeholders question $46 million deal.
 
The $46 million acquisition of eSports company Major League Gaming last year by Call of Duty and Hearthstone developer Activision Blizzard  is in the headlines again as stakeholders bridle at the lack of consultation.
 
The publication eSports Observer reports that MLG co-founder and CEO Sundance DiGiovanni has stepped down and departed, leaving CFO Greg Chisholm to helm the company.
 
The publication notes that the Activision Blizzard acquisition essentially dissolves the professional gaming organisation, and that some investors are angry that the agreement was inked without a stakeholders meeting.
 
The Observer records that DiGiovanni and Mike Sepso founded MLG in 2002, and throughout the years it has regularly hosted professional gaming tournaments, broken into the streaming business, and helped bring eSports to television and the mainstream.
 
In 2014, MLG opened the United States' first professional gaming arena in Ohio, and had plans to open another arena in China by 2017.
 
However, in October last year it lost the hosting rights to the Call of Duty World League's Pro Division to the ESL, an event which coincided with co-founder Mike Sepso  joining Activision as senior vice president of its new eSports division, overseeing professional eSport franchises that include StarCraft, World of Warcraft, Call of Duty, Heroes of the Storm and Hearthstone.