Irvine-based Telmar Network Technology Inc., which sells new and used telecommunications gear, recently completed $50 million in debt financing.
The company plans to use the money for general purposes and to pay a dividend to New York private equity firm Lightyear Capital LLC, which invested $25 million for a majority stake in Telmar in 2003.
“We’re delighted to have completed this refinancing to facilitate our continued expansion both domestically and internationally,” said Telmar Chief Executive John Kidwell in a statement. “We’re also pleased to be able to earn a solid return for our investors who have proven to be outstanding partners over the past few years.”
Telmar fixes up and resells networking gear. It’s authorized by big-time suppliers such as Cisco Systems Inc. to handle second-hand gear.
When a startup fails or if a large company is looking to unload equipment, Telmar sweeps in, refurbishes it, marks it up and sells it at anywhere from 40% to 70% of the price of new gear.
Telmar’s customer list includes computer gear makers, regional Bells and their rivals. Last year, Telmar acquired Annandale, N.J.-based Commnet Supply LLC.
Blizzard Sales Strong
Irvine-based Blizzard Entertainment, a unit of Vivendi Universal SA, said it sold more than 600,000 copies of its “World of Warcraft” game in North America, Australia and New Zealand.
The game is Blizzard’s entry into what are called “massively multiplayer” games. Those are where gamers face off against each other on the Internet.
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Scene from ‘Warcraft’: four years in making |
“Warcraft” was in production for nearly four years.
“The public’s response to World of Warcraft has been simply amazing,” said Mike Morhaime, president of Blizzard Entertainment. “We are very proud and excited to see such an overwhelming demand for the game, and we hope that the enthusiasm continues to build as we further enhance our online service.”
Warcraft sold 240,000 copies in the first 24 hours it came out in November.
Earlier this year, Blizzard put out a call for 10,000 people to test the new game. Blizzard got 400,000 offers. There was a similar response in Europe.
Blizzard is pursuing a new strategy: recurring revenue. The company plans to charge online “Warcraft” players a monthly fee to play.
The monthly subscription costs $15 per month. A three-month plan costs $14 per month, while the six-month plan costs $13 per month.
No doubt that the strong sales of Warcraft have some at Blizzard breathing a sigh of relief.
During the summer, Blizzard escaped cuts after parent Vivendi Universal Games said it was firing 350 people.
Storage for Broadcom
Irvine-based chipmaker Broadcom Corp. has taken another step into storage.
The latest: A chip that helps transfer data inside storage units at a gigabyte per second, which Broadcom says is the first of its kind.
It’s the first chip resulting from Broadcom’s $16.5 million buy of Nashua, N.H.-based RAIDCore Inc. last year.
RAIDCore makes software for storage systems using what’s known as a redundant array of independent disks. RAID is touted as a faster, cheaper way to back up data on big corporate servers.
Before being bought by Broadcom, RAIDCore was working on technology known as serial advanced attachment interface. RAIDCore received $5 million in venture money for its serial advanced attachment interface development in 2003.
The way of connecting disk drives with personal computers and servers is used in Broadcom’s latest chip, named RAIDCore BC4852.
Broadcom is best known for chips that speed the flow of data over corporate networks, cable modems and wireless systems. Storage networks,banks of computers used by big companies alike to store data,are relatively new ground for Broadcom.
The company has been steadily building its storage offerings. With 2001’s acquisition of ServerWorks, Broadcom got into making serial advanced attachment interface controllers. It picked up broadband network processors with its 2000 buy of SiByte.
In 2003, Broadcom bought the assets of Santa Clara’s Gadzoox Networks Inc. Broadcom picked up the maker of switches for storage networks out of bankruptcy for nearly $9 million, a far cry from Gadzoox’s $2 billion market value in 1999.
Last year, it also made an $18 million buy of storage technology patents from Austin, Texas-based Cirrus Logic Inc.
But Broadcom still is a small storage player in a market dominated by Costa Mesa-based Emulex Corp., Aliso Viejo-based QLogic Corp. and San Jose’s Brocade Communications Systems Inc.
