Lake Forest disk drive maker Western Digital Corp. plans to invest $1.2 billion during the next five years to expand its manufacturing in Malaysia.
The company is set to build a 1.5 million-square-foot plant for making disk drive parts and for research and development, according to a report from the government of Malaysia.
A spokesperson for Western Digital confirmed the report but declined to comment further.
The announcement comes after Chief Executive John Coyne, who goes by the Malaysian honorary title “Datuk,” met with Prime Minister Seri Najib Tun Razak in Washington, D.C., a few weeks ago.
“Western Digital chose Malaysia for this latest expansion following the success of its operations here over the last 38 years,” the prime minister’s office said in a statement.
Construction is set to be complete by the third quarter of next year. The facility will add capacity slowly during a five-year period.
The new buildings are ex-pected to bring some 10,000 jobs to Malaysia, where West-ern Digital already employs roughly 19,000 workers.
Western Digital’s disk drives are used in desktop PCs, notebooks, portable storage devices, corporate networks and other consumer electronics.
It has invested some $2.5 billion to date in building up its Malaysian operations, the government said.
Western Digital had a recent market value of $1.5 billion.
BlizzCon Tickets
Irvine’s Blizzard Entertainment Inc., part of France’s Vivendi SA and the top maker of online video games, is set to sell tickets next month for its fifth-annual fan fest in Anaheim.
Tickets for BlizzCon, as the fan convention is called, are set to go on sale this week in two batches, on Wednesday and Saturday. Tickets go for $150 a pop, up from $125 last year.
BlizzCon gathers fans of Blizzard’s biggest online games, including the franchises for “Warcraft,” “StarCraft” and “Diablo.”
The event is set for the Anaheim Conven-tion Center on Oct. 22 and 23.
The previous BlizzCon was held in Anaheim last August. Tickets to the event sold out in minutes and many more fans watched online and via pay-per-view on TV.
This year’s pay-per-view showing goes for about $40.
“BlizzCon is a unique opportunity for our players to meet one another, strengthen the friendships they’ve formed online, and have a great time celebrating a shared passion for gaming together with Blizzard employees,” Chief Executive Mike Morhaime said. “For those who can’t attend, we’re pleased to be providing an unprecedented level of access to the activities and attractions that BlizzCon has to offer.”
Blizzard puts on the event, which acts like a corporate retreat for Blizzard’s development and creative teams, for its fans and employees, who get juiced up by the fans’ zeal.
Some 1,200 Blizzard workers from around the world come to Anaheim to work at the convention and interact with fans.
Last year’s event featured game tournaments, a costume contest and a closing concert by rocker Ozzy Osbourne.
This year’s BlizzCon will feature discussion panels with developers, tournaments, contests and hands-on playtime with current and upcoming Blizzard games.
Bits and Pieces
Cypress-based Christie Digital Systems Inc., a maker of high-performance digital projectors, inked a three-year deal to install its projectors at the Cannes International Film Festival, which wrapped up last week. This year marked the company’s fourth trip to Cannes, where it outfitted some 22 theaters with the latest generation of its digital movie-theater projectors. Terms of the deal weren’t disclosed. The agreement covers the technical and logistical aspects of 2D and 3D digital projection, said Pascal Gervais, director of development for Christie in France … Santa Ana technology products distributor Ingram Micro Inc. recently landed a slew of awards from networking kingpin Cisco Systems Inc. Ingram was named distributor of the year and distribution partner of the year in seven regions worldwide by Cisco. It was also named for a Cisco services innovation award … Joshua Hong, chief executive of Irvine online video game company K2 Network Inc., recently was named on OC Metro’s 40 Under 40 list of local businesspeople. Hong was one of five entrepreneurs honored at the Business Journal’s annual Excellence in Entrepreneurship award luncheon held in March. K2 Network, which operates a video game website called GamersFirst, seeks out developers in the U.S., Asia and Europe and strikes licensing deals to distribute their games online.
