Irvine’s Blizzard Entertainment, the largest software company in Orange County with an estimated 2,450 employees, has a new owner.
Microsoft Corp. (Nasdaq: MSFT) on Oct. 13 finalized its $69 billion purchase of Activision Blizzard, the largest-ever acquisition in the gaming market.
Activision Blizzard is the parent company of Irvine-based Blizzard Entertainment, the maker of fantasy role-playing games including World of Warcraft and Diablo IV, the latter of which helped the Irvine unit for the first time ever to top $1 billion in quarterly sales earlier this year.
The United Kingdom’s Competition and Markets Authority agreed to the acquisition after Microsoft made some concessions allowing competitors access to its cloud gaming market.
“The new deal will stop Microsoft from locking up competition in cloud gaming as this market takes off, preserving competitive prices and services for UK cloud gaming customers,” the regulatory agency said in a press release.
It appears to be business as usual for Blizzard, which lists over 120 openings for jobs in Irvine.
Among them are several roles for an “unnamed survival game” that industry watchers have referred to as “Odyssey.”
Expect more details at the company’s forthcoming BlizzCon event, which returns to Anaheim early next month after a several-year absence.
Satellite Maker Terran Adds Circuit Board Lines
Satellite manufacturer Terran Orbital Corp. (NYSE: LLAP), which has the bulk of its operations in Irvine, says it is improving its supply chain issues, in part by adding a pair of new printed circuit board assembly (PCBA) lines to its local operations.
In addition to its two new PCBA Surface Mount Technology (SMT) lines, the company said it has also added capabilities for post-SMT processes, fully automated inspection, 3D X-ray testing, automated optical inspection, and flying probe technologies.
The additions give Terran “the complete ability to produce, inspect, and test a broad spectrum of PCBAs in its facility,” the $150 million-valued company said. The company said it now has the capacity to assemble 5,000 printed circuit boards a month.
The ability to produce and control the output, quality, and availability of PCBA products will decrease supply chain issues and increase parts availability and yield, allowing Terran Orbital to produce its in-demand satellites more timely and cost-efficiently, the company said.
“I’m a big believer that if you control your supply chain, you control your destiny,” Marc Bell, co-founder, CEO, and chairman of Terran Orbital, said in a statement. “Our two new PCBA lines bring us one step closer to our goal of being 100% vertically integrated.”
Terran earlier this year announced it had doubled its spacecraft output to 20 per month, and a few months ago broke ground for a new, 95,000-square-foot facility in Irvine to further boost its satellite-making capabilities.
