| Posted at 10:02 on October 31st, 2002 | Quote | Edit | Delete | |
 Member Retired Gumby Posts: 1007 | That may be it. I would assume that SSI/Mindscape being acquired by SSI in 2001 is actually the acquisition of TLC by a private investor and creating an independent company. The problem is that Mindscape is now undependent, The Learning Company is part of Broderbund and SSI is part of UBI Soft. This all happened within the year and a half, yet I could not find an exact account of what actually happened... ----- NetDanzr<br /> -The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog- |
| Posted at 09:34 on October 31st, 2002 | Quote | Edit | Delete | |
 Admin Reborn Gumby Posts: 11126 | I can only answer one of these questions and that without any proof or source - only from my memory, thus very unreliable. Shortly after I had received the cease & desist letter from the IDSA, I heard about SSI/Mindscape being acquired by The Learning Company. I think it was a 'new development' then, so it must have been in 2001. Other than that: not the slightest idea  ----- Now you see the violence inherent in the system! |
| Posted at 08:30 on October 31st, 2002 | Quote | Edit | Delete | |
Member Retired Gumby Posts: 1007 | Yes, but that gets even more complicated, as this was part of the Mindscape deal, and I still didn't figure that one out. Remember that TLC is the former Software Toolworks. The whole deal is so complicated that I still haven't figured it out entirely. Here's how it goes so far: Quote: 1990 - Software Toolworks acquires Mindscape; the divisions retain their names 1994 - The company drops the name Software Toolworks and operates solely as Mindscape Dec 1995 - Softkey purchases The Learning Company Dec 1998 - Mattel buys The Learning Company and renames it Mattel Interactive Oct 2001 - Mattel sells its interacitve division to Gore Technology Group Oct 2001 - Jean-Pierre Nordman buys the international division of The Learning Company from Gore Technology Group and remanes it Mindscape This timeline raises two questions: 1. When did Minscape/Software Toolworks become The Learning Company and how? 2. When did SSI end up in the hands of UBI Soft and how? Getting all these relationships straight is harder than I thought... ----- NetDanzr<br /> -The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog- |
| Posted at 13:48 on October 30th, 2002 | Quote | Edit | Delete | |
Admin Reborn Gumby Posts: 11126 | Hmmm..... wasn't "The Learning Company" somehow involved in one of the acquisitions of SSI, too? ----- Now you see the violence inherent in the system! |
| Posted at 12:51 on October 30th, 2002 | Quote | Edit | Delete | |
Member Retired Gumby Posts: 1007 | Yup, seen that as well  . Just to give you an idea of what kind of history I'm putting together, here's what I found about SSI, which I was researching earlier today:Quote: * 1979 - the company founded by Joel Billings * 1992-93 - following a failed attempt at creating a next-generation RPG engine, SSI gets into financial troubles, lays off part of the work force and eventually gets sold to Mindscape * 1994 - SSI acquired by Mindscape; continues to develop and publish games under its own label * 2000 - Three veteran SSI designers, Joel Billings, Gary Grigsby and Keith Brors leave SSI and form 2by3 Games * 2000 - SSI acquired by UBI Soft. Internal development halted and SSI integrated under the GAMES Studio label So what I'm doing now is to look through EA's old annual reports to get the dates of acquisitions, as well as the names of acquired companies, when they closed down a label, and such things. ----- NetDanzr<br /> -The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog- |
| Posted at 12:46 on October 30th, 2002 | Quote | Edit | Delete | |
 Member Retired Gumby Posts: 964 | |
| Posted at 12:27 on October 30th, 2002 | Quote | Edit | Delete | |
Member Retired Gumby Posts: 964 | At first I wondered whether you actually did a search, but after doing it myself, I was surprised that such a history is really so hard to find... |
| Posted at 07:08 on October 30th, 2002 | Quote | Edit | Delete | |
Member Retired Gumby Posts: 1007 | Thanks, Tapuak. Unfortunatelly, MobyGames is the first place I always go, and I know how to use Google, so I found the other site as well . Now I'm going through the tedious work of reading EA's old financial statements, only to get marginally more information...----- NetDanzr<br /> -The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog- |
| Posted at 07:05 on October 29th, 2002 | Quote | Edit | Delete | |
Member Retired Gumby Posts: 964 | This could be what you're looking for: http://www.digitalcentury.com/encyclo/update/ea.html Not a coherent history, but some figures about the company: http://media.corporate-ir.net/media_files/NSD/ERTS/custom/corpbackgroundfinal05021.pdf For a list of games created/published by EA, I'd recommend Mobygames. |
| Posted at 07:50 on October 28th, 2002 | Quote | Edit | Delete | |
Member Retired Gumby Posts: 1007 | I'm looking for a coherent history of Electronic Arts. Every other publisher I looked into, no mmatter how big or small, had a relatively good history information somewhere on their site, but I could not find anything but bits and pieces for EA. Anybody knows where to look? Many thanks! ----- NetDanzr<br /> -The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog- |