Two big video game development companies combined earlier this year – Activision and Blizzard Entertainment – creating a new firm called Activision Blizzard Inc.

Activision is responsible for the video game blockbusters “Guitar Hero” and “Call of Duty”, while Blizzard developed the popular multiplayer online role-playing game “World of Warcraft.”

After the merger, the new company decided to operate Blizzard Entertainment as a separate division. It also retained one of Blizzard’s co-founders, Michael Morhaime, as president and chief executive of Blizzard Entertainment. Greenberg Traurig partner Duane Sitar in Atlanta was legal adviser to Morhaime on negotiating his employment contract with Activision Blizzard, according to a regulatory filing.

Sitar declined to comment on his work for Morhaime.

The deal to create Activision Blizzard was announced in December 2007. In the deal, Vivendi SA acquired a majority stake in Santa Monica, Calif.-based Activision and combined Activision with its Vivendi Games subsidiary, which included Blizzard Entertainment. The transaction closed in July. In the merger, Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom advised Activision and Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher advised Vivendi.

Rogers & Hardin partner Steve Fox advised Crown Crafts Inc. on inking a contract with its new chief financial officer.

Crown Crafts in September announced that it had hired Olivia W. Elliott as vice president and CFO, receiving a promotion from her previous position as company treasurer. She joined Crown Crafts from Amedisys in 2001. Crown Crafts will pay Elliott a salary of $200,000, plus performance-based cash bonuses and other benefits, according to a regulatory filing.

Crown Crafts, of Gonzales, La., makes bedding, bibs and blankets for infants and toddlers.

King & Spalding partner Jack Capers advised Concurrent Computer Corp. on the negotiation of a 4-year employment contract with its chief financial officer, Emory Berry.

Berry had been working as Concurrent’s CFO on a contract basis through TechCFO LLC. TechCFO, an Atlanta company, provides “executive level financial management, project management and staffing” to technology companies, according to its Web site. Concurrent, of Duluth, sells Linux-based computing technologies to private companies and government agencies.

Berry will be paid a base salary this year of $295,000, according to a regulatory filing. Berry will also be eligible for a bonus and was awarded restricted stock and stock options.

Concurrent’s general counsel is Kirk L. Somers.

Atlanta talent agent Norm Schrutt negotiated a contract extension on behalf of 680 the Fan sports-talk radio show host John Kincaid.

Schrutt described Kincaid’s contract with Dickey Broadcasting Co.’s WCNN-AM as a long-term deal with certain non-compete provisions. Schrutt declined to provide further details on the contract.

In addition to his work on 680 the Fan’s “Buck & Kincaid” show, Kincaid [see photo, right] also does regular work for ESPN, such as guest-hosting on ESPN Radio’s “The Herd with Colin Cowherd” and hosting his own ESPN Radio show on Sunday mornings.

Schrutt, who’s not an attorney, said lawyers from Greenberg Traurig vetted the legal aspects of Kincaid’s contract. Schrutt leases office space from Greenberg Traurig inside its office at The Forum on Northside Parkway. Schrutt also previously owned a talent-agency firm with Greenberg Traurig entertainment partner Joel A. Katz, although Schrutt has since bought out Katz’s share of the firm.

Delta Air Lines’ pilots union used in-house counsel for advice on its tentative agreement with Northwest Airlines’ pilots on merging their two unions, according to a union spokeswoman. Kelly Regus, the spokeswoman, declined to provide the names of the union’s in-house attorneys. Two attorneys listed in the State Bar of Georgia directory as Delta Air Line Pilots Association employees, Andrew Eric Brenner and Gordon Joseph Rose, did not return calls and emails seeking comment. Regus said that Brenner and Rose did not work on the agreement with Northwest.

Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz partners Stephanie J. Seligman and Lawrence S. Makow in New York have been lead corporate counsel to Delta Air Lines’ management on the Northwest acquisition. The two Wachtell Lipton lawyers also have been trying to nudge the Delta pilots and Northwest pilots toward reaching a deal on merging their unions, The Am Law Daily blog reported Thursday.

In April Delta agreed to acquire Northwest for $3.63 billion. As part of the deal, Delta gave its pilots an equity stake in the new company. No such deal was consummated with Northwest's pilots. Although the Delta and Northwest pilots had not agreed on how to merge their seniority lists in April, Delta and Northwest executives decided to proceed with their merger anyway.

The tentative joint contract with Delta and Northwest pilots announced this week clears the way for relatively smoother sailing if the two airlines receive regulatory clearance for their merger later this year.