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2014 Year in Review: Technology

Person to Watch

Sailesh Chittipeddi

The Business Journal’s choice of Sailesh Chittipeddi, chief executive of Newport Beach-based chipmaker Conexant Systems Inc., hit the target.

Chittipeddi guided Conexant out of bankruptcy in 2013, when it shed some $195 million in debt carried over from its days as a public company and shrank its real estate holdings, mostly office leases that tracked back to the company’s heyday that were spread around the U.S. and overseas.

Chittipeddi wrapped up his nearly three-year tenture at Conexant earlier this year, moving on to the post of global vice president of operations and chief technology officer in the San Jose office of Integrated Device Technology Inc., a Newark, N.J.-based telecom with about $480 million in annual revenue, more than 3 times Conexant’s sales prior to its bankruptcy.

Chittipeddi manages the company’s manufacturing supply chain and operations, and heads up efforts to accelerate technology development.

Company to Watch

Blizzard Entertainment Inc.

Blizzard Entertainment Inc. entered the year under new ownership and on a quest to halt mounting subscription losses of its flagship fantasy role-playing game, “World of WarCraft.”

A new expansion set released in November eased the latter concern, as the company added 600,000 players to its base of 7.4 million subscribers through September. That’s roughly 200,000 short of the 8.2 million mark a year ago, although subscriptions will likely surpass that level once the current quarter is fully counted.

The change in ownership—which came on a management buyout of Santa Monica-based parent Activision Blizzard Inc. from Vivendi SA in France—looks to have gone smoothly enough.

The newly independent company’s shares are flat in the past year, with a market value of nearly $14.4 billion.

Blizzard has increased revenue 42% in the first nine months of the year to $1.1 billion. Its first free-to-play title, a collectible card game called “Hearthstone,” has amassed more than 20 million players and is projected to generate $100 million in revenue in its first year.

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