Verbatim, a wholly-owned subsidiary of blank optical disc maker CMC Magnetics, has unveiled gaming HDDs (hard disk drives) and SSDs under its SureFire brand in the Europe market and will launch other gaming accessories including keyboards and headphones in 2021, according to CMC.

CMC acquired the storage solution provider Verbatim from Mitsubishi Chemical Media in second-half 2019, with the acquisition covering Verbatim's marketing subsidiaries in the US, Europe, Australia and Hong Kong as well as its trademark, patents, technologies and retail channels.

While revenues from Verbatim have taken up 50% of consolidated revenues, its sales so far in 2020 have been lower than expected mainly due to the coronavirus pandemic, CMC said, adding that Verbatim has offered gaming accessories as an additional product line. Global sales for gaming accessories will increase from 90 million units worth US$4.0 billion in 2020 to 130 million units worth US$6.5 billion in 2024, CMC said.

Besides, Verbatim will launch own-brand smart home security devices in Europe in second-half 2021 and extend LED lighting business from B2C to B2B sale including lighting for office buildings, hotels, convention centers and sports facilities.

While global demand for general blank optical discs is on the decline, that for archival optical discs with large storage capacities is growing, CMC noted. With Chinese government data centers being major users, archival optical discs take up 5-10% of consolidated revenues currently and demand for such discs is expected to significantly grow along with increasing establishment of cloud data centers, CMC indicated.

CMC has made non-operating investment in movie production and has so far invested in the production of 400 movies.

CMC posted consolidated revenues of NT$2.37 billion (US$82 million), gross margin of 21.17%, operating loss of NT$56.1 million and net loss of NT$346.1 million for third-quarter 2020, leading to consolidated revenues of NT$6.964 billion, gross margin of 18.37%, operating loss of NT$345.7 million and net loss of NT$526.8 million for the first three quarters of the year.

Blank optical disc accounted for 57% of the 9-month consolidated revenues, flash storage devices for 16%, HDDs for 8%, accessories for 9% and LED lighting for 2%.

CMC has reported consolidated revenues of NT$844.6 million for November, growing 20.04% sequentially and 71.02% on year.