The Battle Road Tech Index™ rose 1.3 percent for the week ended February 12, 2010, closing at 1585. For the week, 17 of the 25 Index components rose in value. Year-to-date, the index is down 5.7 percent, having started at a value of 1680.

The following companies were notable movers for the week:

Shares of Activision Blizzard (NASDAQ: ATVI, $11.11) gained 8.8 percent as it reported higher than expected earnings late Wednesday. The company reported non-GAAP revenues of $2.5 billion, which topped the $2.23 billion analysts estimated. The video game publisher also announced a $1 billion stock buyback program and an annual dividend of 15 cents a share. Most importantly, Activision also reaffirmed that its “Starcraft 2″ game will enter beta later in February and is on track for release in the first half of 2010. “Starcraft 2” is the highly anticipated sequel to Blizzard’s record-smashing, cultural phenomenon “Starcraft.” Since its release in 1998, the game has sold more than 11 million copies to date and is still widely played online in most of the internet-connected world. Starcraft is widely considered to be among the best and most important PC games of all time. “Starcraft 2” will likely be the most highly anticipated PC game sequel of all time.

Shares of Intel (NASDAQ: INTC, $20.43) rose 4.9 percent this week in anticipation of Nvidia’s earnings release on February 17. Near-term trends in the core graphics space appear positive due to improvements in mix. The sector as a whole is also expected to benefit from an overdue PC refresh cycle later in the year. On Friday, February 12, Intel Capital also announced a new strategic initiative with China Investment Corporation to leverage its technical expertise with the vast resources of the CIC to invest in the next generation of leading companies.

eBay (NASDAQ: EBAY, $21.77) was down 4.1 percent this week. The share price was hurt by an unfavorable ruling from a Paris District Court on Thursday. eBay has been taken to court by a number of European luxury brands, mostly due to the sale of “knockoff” products through its marketplace site. In particular, Louis Vitton has been persistent in its efforts. In November, eBay was forced to pay EUR1.7 million for allowing genuine Louis Vitton products to appear on its site. The court fined eBay $275,000 (EUR200,000) for damaging Louis Vitton’s reputation and brand. This instance was prompted over the use of keywords that misspell “Louis Vitton” in order to circumvent the ban on listing those products. This could prompt a host of other legal actions against eBay and limit listings of higher priced merchandise, which generate greater commissions for the eCommerce marketplace.

Shares of SAP (NYSE: SAP, $42.99) fell 6.5 percent after the company announced the resignation and replacement of its CEO, Leo Apotheker. The company promoted two executives to share the CEO position, a structure that SAP has used in the past. The management shuffle caps a difficult year for the company in which sales shrunk significantly. While most enterprise software vendors struggled, pure play on-demand providers like Salesforce.com and NetSuite continued to grow steadily. SAP’s plans to bring a cloud ERP solution to market also suffered major setbacks over the past year. Investors are left wondering if SAP can adequately address the changing software market and begin to generate growth.