(Bloomberg) -- Activision Blizzard Inc. had plans to lay off workers before its merger with Microsoft Corp., the tech giant said in a court filing Thursday, pushing back on claims by the Federal Trade Commission about the job cuts.

“Consistent with broader trends in the gaming industry, Activision was already planning on eliminating a significant number of jobs while still operating as an independent company,” Microsoft told a federal appeals court in San Francisco. “The recent announcement thus cannot be attributed fully to the merger.”

Last month, Microsoft announced internally that it was cutting about 8% of its games division’s 22,000 employees — that’s about 1,900 workers at Activision Blizzard, Xbox and ZeniMax. The FTC, which failed to block the Activision deal last year, said Wednesday those job cuts contradict statements Microsoft made that it would operate Activision independently.

The agency is appealing its earlier loss.

In its letter, Microsoft said that while some of the layoffs relate to overlap between its existing staff and Activision, the company continues to operate its newly acquired unit in such a way that it could be spun off if later required to by the court.

©2024 Bloomberg L.P.