The entire staff of Annapurna Interactive, the video-game publishing division of Megan Ellison’s Annapurna studio, resigned this month following a dispute with its owner, according to people familiar with the situation.
Annapurna Interactive President Nathan Gary and his team had been negotiating with Ellison, the daughter of billionaire Larry Ellison, to spin off the video-game division as an independent entity, said the people, who spoke anonymously because they were not authorized to share the information with the press. When Ellison pulled out of the negotiations, Gary and other executives resigned and were followed by around two dozen other staffers.
Seems as if the team was demanding equity in the form of the spinoff, and ownership ultimately decided they weren’t going to give it to them, and now their whole team quit. Power move. Now ownership is going to try to get some of those people back by offering them huge sign on bonuses and equity, wonder how many are going to go for it, or if they’ll stand pat as a group.