Hardcore fans of Blizzard Entertainment Inc.’s online video games are gearing up for the company’s fifth annual worldwide invitational convention and tournament.
The event is set for June 28 and 29 in Paris. Tickets, which sold out months ago, went for about $110.
Attendees can expect to play “World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King”,the latest installment in Blizzard’s long-running multiplayer online game.
“World of Warcraft” has some 10 million subscribers who pay about $15 a month to face off with other players online in the character-driven, fantasy-themed game.
“The previous Blizzard worldwide invitationals have provided great opportunities for us to meet with players and share some incredible gaming experiences with them,” said Mike Morhaime, chief executive and cofounder of Blizzard. “We’re looking forward to bringing this event to Paris for the first time and offering an exciting show.”
Blizzard’s parent company, France’s Vivendi SA, is combining the game developer with Santa Monica’s Activision Inc.
A big part of the Blizzard show is the tournaments, some for casual gamers and others where pros compete for cash prizes.
Highlights include discussion panels with Blizzard video game developers, autograph signings from Blizzard artists, a silent auction featuring Blizzard gear and live music.
Broadcom’s Qualcomm Royalties
Irvine chipmaker Broadcom Corp. is seeing the fruit of its ongoing legal battles with top rival Qualcomm Inc.
San Diego-based Qualcomm paid Broadcom about $36 million in royalties and legal fees during the first quarter.
The royalties stem from a licensing deal with Verizon Wireless, a unit of New York-based Verizon Communications Inc., which requires cell phone makers to pay $6 a phone to use Qualcomm chips that were found to have infringed on Broadcom’s patents.
Analysts are starting to figure the extra revenue into their projections.
“Qualcomm revenue could drive upside,” said Daniel Berenbaum, analyst at New York’s Caris & Co. “Broadcom could see $10 million to $20 million per quarter starting in late 2008 if the ruling holds.”
More royalties could be on the way if Qualcomm chooses to settle some of its patent disputes with Broadcom.
As a side note, Broadcom switched up its reporting style for its first-quarter earnings.
For the first time in recent memory, Broadcom reported results only according to generally accepted accounting principles.
In the past, the chipmaker reported results as GAAP and non-GAAP.
It helps keep Broadcom accountable to its promise to reduce stock compensation expenses and “to help facilitate easier comparison across different industries,” Chief Financial Officer Eric Brandt said.
Ingram Fixes and Clarifications
I got some feedback on the Corner Offices profile of Santa Ana’s Ingram Micro Inc. that ran April 21.
A few corrections:
Cliff Crisanti, senior manager of corporate communications at Ingram, was incorrectly identified in the story. I regret the error.
Second, Ingram Micro has roughly 170,000 reseller customers, which also was misstated.
Lastly, the box that accompanied the story, which features photos and biographical bits about Ingram’s key people, isn’t the company’s complete organizational chart.
For space reasons, we couldn’t fit everyone. We picked key people and others based on relevance to the story.
Memeo Expands Deal
Aliso Viejo’s Memeo Inc., a privately held maker of backup software, expanded a deal with Japan’s Buffalo Technology Inc., a maker of storage gear.
Memeo, which got its start in 2003, makes software that helps consumers safeguard their photos, music and other files automatically.
Under the terms of the pact, Memeo’s software is bundled with Buffalo’s external consumer storage gear and sold worldwide.
Memeo also recently announced a software program for storing and sharing photos, appropriately called Share.
It allows users to automatically send pictures, videos and other documents directly to computer desktops of friends and family in their circle.
