Blizzard Entertainment Inc.’s fourth annual fan fest is set to kick off this week at the Anaheim Convention Center.
BlizzCon 2009 is expected to attract thousands of fans of Blizzard’s fantasy and science fiction-themed online game franchises, “Warcraft,” “StarCraft” and “Diablo.”
This year’s event has been expanded from three convention halls to four because of its popularity.
The two-day convention features play time with new Blizzard games, discussion panels with Blizzard game developers and artists, tournaments, a silent auction and, of course, the opportunity to stock up on official Blizzard gear.
New details about Blizzard’s latest trilogy, “StarCraft II,” also will be disclosed.
There are a slew of contests for best art, movie or original song inspired by Blizzard’s universes.
Ready to bump up the geek factor? There are character-related contests where fans will be scored on their ability to look, sound and dance like their favorite monsters, heroes, elves and dwarves in the games.
Tickets, which went for $125 a pop, are sold out. For those who still want to watch the action, Blizzard struck a deal to show the convention on pay-per-view via DirecTV for around $40.
Keep an eye out for my reports on the convention in next week’s paper.
Sumo Sleek
Anaheim’s Mobile Edge LLC, which makes hip laptop bags, backpacks and accessories, recently bought the Bay Area’s HS International LLC.
Mobile Edge went after HS International to get its Sumo brand, best known for its fashionable laptop cases geared for Apple Inc.’s MacBooks. Its cases feature a distinctive motif,a silhouette of a squat sumo wrestler.
Terms of the deal weren’t disclosed.
The deal is set to expand Mobile Edge’s product offerings and grow its presence in the laptop category, according to G. David Cartwright, founder and chief executive.
Mobile Edge is set to build on the Sumo product line. It’s adding slim computer sleeves,designed to protect a PC inside of another bag,for notebooks and their smaller cousins, netbooks.
It’s also set to include non-computer-related bags, including duffel bags and collapsible storage cubes, the company said.
The company plans to market the Sumo lineup to younger customers, mostly high school and college students.
Mobile Edge’s bags are geared toward young professionals.
Cartwright is an industry veteran,he is one of the founders of Anaheim’s Targus Inc., which has roughly 60% of the market for laptop cases and related accessories sold in stores.
In 2001, Cartwright stepped down from his post as president at Targus and founded Mobile Edge.
The company has sought to one-up Targus on style with computer bags for women and young people.
The Business Journal estimates Mobile Edge’s yearly sales at about $40 million.
Multi’s Tear
Shares of Anaheim’s Multi-Fineline Electronix Inc., a maker of flexible circuit boards for mobile phones, have been on a tear lately.
Its stock is up more than 100% since the start of the year on a recent market value of about $640 million.
Industry watchers often look to contract board makers as early indicators of increasing demand for cell phones and handheld consumer electronics.
Chief Executive Reza Meshgin said the company is seeing a boost during the current quarter as its larger customers ramp up production ahead of the holiday season.
The company also is seeing more sales from smaller customers that are upgrading their lineups of smart phone models, as well as from other players introducing smart phones for the first time, he said in a statement.
The strongest part of Multi-Fineline’s business, according to analysts, is from customers Research in Motion Ltd. and Apple Inc., which are set to come out with new devices ahead of the holidays.
“We believe the iPod touch should ramp aggressively in the third and fourth quarters, adding to continued strong sales growth with Research in Motion,” said Amit Daryanani, an analyst at RBC Capital Markets Corp. in San Francisco, part of the investment bank arm of Royal Bank of Canada.
The weaker part of Multi-Fineline’s business comes from traditional cell phone makers, including Sony Ericsson Mobile Communica-tions AB, which makes up 7% of the company’s sales, and Motorola Inc., which makes up 4% of sales.
“Both continue to perform poorly, but at
this point they are relatively insignificant pieces of the mix,” Daryanani said in a research note.
He upped his price target on the stock to $23 per share from $21 per share.
M-Flex, as the company is called, was trading at around $25 per share last week.
For the current quarter, Multi-Fineline said it expects sales of $190 million to $205 million. It didn’t give a profit outlook.
Analysts, on average, are looking for profits of $9 million on sales of $192 million.
