Category Archives: nasdaq

Activision Blizzard Ready To Rack Up Points From E-Sports

Video game publisher Activision Blizzard ( ATVI ) is taking steps to capitalize on the growing e-sports trend. On Thursday, Activision announced the launch of its e-sports broadcast network, as part of the recently acquired Major League Gaming platform. It also revealed new content and broadcast experiences, as well as a distribution partnership with Facebook ( FB ). “This marks an important step given Activision’s broader ambitions as a media/entertainment company, and is a natural evolution of the Major League Gaming assets acquired early this year,” Baird analyst Colin Sebastian said in a research report Thursday. “E-sports is still in its infancy (think fantasy football 20 years ago) and represents significant near- and long-term incremental monetization opportunities given Activision Blizzard’s portfolio of owned-IP.” Sebastian rates Activision stock as outperform, with a price target of 42. Activision stock rose 1% to 38.29 on the stock market today , more than 9% extended from a 34.76 buy point, touched April 13, out of a cup-with-handle base. The Santa Monica, Calif.-based company presented its Activision Blizzard Media Network plan for advertisers at the IAB Digital Content NewFronts 2016 conference in New York. ABMN will launch the new content and broadcast experiences during the MLG Anaheim Open, a two-day “Call of Duty: Black Ops 3” tournament beginning on June 10. It will be available for live streaming through Facebook. “E-sports could become a meaningful revenue and profit contributor to Activision within 2-3 years, as the company monetizes its IP (intellectual property) and product portfolio across alternative distribution channels,” Sebastian said. Baird predicts the e-sports industry will grow from $200 million last year to $1 billion in 2018 and $1.8 billion in 2020. “We see a significant opportunity with tournaments, advertising/sponsorship, broadcasting, and fantasy/wagering, contributing incrementally to game publisher revenues and earnings,” Sebastian said. Other companies pursuing e-sports initiatives include Time Warner ’s ( TWX ) Turner Sports and talent management agency WME-IMG, which have partnered on E-League, a “Counter-Strike: Global Offensive” league. On Wednesday, Turner and WME-IMG announced the first group of brands to join E-League as official marketing partners. They include Arby’s, Credit Karma and Buffalo Wild Wings ( BWLD ). The inaugural season of E-League starts on May 24. Meanwhile, Walt Disney ( DIS )-owned ESPN has teamed with Activision on “Heroes of the Dorm,” a tournament for the game “Heroes of the Storm.” RELATED: Disney’s Exit From Toys-To-Life Video Games Could Boost Activision

Western Digital Starts New Era As SanDisk Acquisition Completed

Western Digital ( WDC ) completed its $16 billion acquisition of SanDisk, creating a formidable competitor in both disk drives and flash-chip storage. SanDisk is a leading provider of chips used for data storage in a wide variety of devices, including smartphones, tablets and PCs. The deal will help SanDisk, which has a strong retail business, move up the ladder to make bigger sales to businesses and other enterprise customers, the market where Western Digital is strongest. Western Digital gets the ability to offer chip-based storage in areas where its disk drive technology is losing ground. Western Digital didn’t provide updated guidance with its announcement of the deal’s closure. “This is disappointing, as the company indicated on its earnings call, perhaps unintentionally, that it planned to provide updated June guidance when the deal closed,” Pacific Crest Securities analyst Weston Twigg wrote in a research note. Western Digital did say that it would provide guidance in the “near term.” Twigg said Western Digital should remain well positioned in its core hard disk drive business, though disk drive revenue will decline over the next five years as non-volatile memory and software-optimized storage products gain. “Western Digital’s acquisition of SanDisk should help position it for these shifts,” Twigg wrote. Western Digital and SanDisk had combined revenue of about $20 billion in 2015. Western Digital is the largest provider of disk drives, ahead of Seagate Technology ( STX ). “This transformational combination creates a media-agnostic leader in storage technology with a robust portfolio of products and solutions that will address a wide range of applications in almost all of the world’s computing and mobile devices,” Western Digital CEO Steve Milligan said in Friday’s  press release  announcing the acquisition had closed. Sanjay Mehrotra, co-founder and CEO of SanDisk, will serve as a member of the Western Digital board of directors. Western Digital stock was down 2.5%, near 35, in late-afternoon trading in the stock market today , at a more than three-year low. Seagate stock was up 1.5%, near 19, after touching a four-year low on Thursday.