True Games Interactive Nabs Exec from K2; Liberty Information Sold to Midwest Competitor TECHNOLOGY

The outlook for Costa Mesa's Emulex Corp., a maker of devices for data storage networks, is looking a little dimmer these days.

Shares are down some 33% since the start of the year on a recent market value of about $870 million.

The company cut its expectations for the June quarter a few weeks ago.

The forecast is a sharp contrast to local rival Aliso Viejo- based QLogic Corp., which upped its outlook and has seen its stock continue to rise.

The bulk of Emulex's sales come from host bus adapters, a profitable bit of electronics that speed up the flow of data on a network.

'Our checks lead us to believe that Emulex's host bus adapter business is weak at this time," said Kaushik Roy, analyst at Pacific Growth Equities LLC in San Francisco.

Emulex has been losing market share to QLogic for host bus adapters for a while now. QLogic reached a 50% market share for the first time during the first quarter.

Emuiex is likely selling fewer host bus adapters to companies that are hurting these days, such as banks and financial services companies, Roy said in a research note.

"Emulex's host bus adapters have more exposure to the high-end and financial services than competitor QLogic," he said.

For the June quarter, Emulex is looking for profits of $16 million to $17 million on sales of $111 million to $113 million

The revised outlook falls short of analysts' expected $21 million in profits on sales of $121 million.

The company is set to report results on Aug. 7.

Despite Emulex's sour news, the data storage industry is holding up pretty well, Roy said.

Strong spending on technology products in Europe, especially in Germany, and in Asia is keeping things afloat, he said.

Preparations for next month's Summer Olympic Games in Beijing are driving some sales, but they might see a falloff after the event is over.

"The Olympics seems to have helped the technology infrastructure providers in the first and second quarters, but some people are worried that China is going to have a hangover in the third quarter," Roy said.

True Games Adds

Santa Ana startup True Games Interactive, which licenses and markets online video games, nabbed another executive from Irvine- based competitor K2 Network Inc.

Peter Cesario, 33, is set to be True Games' director of new business and product development-the same role he held at K2.

True Games Interactive founders Jeff Lujan and Bob Drobish also hail from K2 Network.