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| Mindscape | |
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| Type | Private |
| Founded | 1980 |
| Headquarters | Novato, California, United States |
| Key people | Jean-Pierre Nordman, CEO |
| Industry | Computer software Software publishing |
| Revenue | ▲ €38 million (2005) |
| Website | www.mindscape.co.uk |
Mindscape is an international software publishing company, previously part of The Learning Company. As of 2004, the group has offices in France, England, Ireland, Germany, Netherlands, Asia, Australia and Latin America. It has an annual turnover of €38 million and employs 150 people. Mindscape publishes and distributes educational and lifestyle games and software. Its most notable titles include Law & Order: Criminal Intent and Horse Racing Tycoon.
History
Mindscape started as a brand of The Software Toolworks, a software and computer game publisher, active from 1980 until 2001. It started out publishing software for Heath/Zenith personal computers. Early products included Mychess and the C/80 C compiler for CP/M. The two most popular products were the very long-lived series Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing and the Chessmaster series of computer games. It is also less known for its contribution in the development of the Lego Island PC game series.
In 1990 TST debuted the Miracle Piano, a critically acclaimed music-teaching product which almost sank the company after it over-ordered the piano hardware, was not able to sell through copies of the product very quickly, and was stuck with a large inventory.
In 1997 the internal development department was shut down. Through an undisclosed deal with Electronic Arts UK, most of the development staff, and the game they were developing (which was close to completion) - Warhammer: Dark Omen - was moved to EA's offices in Guildford, Surrey, and released in early 1998.
Below is a timeline of events occurring from 1994 to 2005:
- 1994: Purchases wargames publisher SSI and changes name to Mindscape.
- 1994: Sold to Pearson PLC for $503 million.
- 1998: Sold to The Learning Company for $150 million.
- 1999: Sold to Mattel for around US$3.6 billion, causing a strong impact to Mattel's stock price and the ouster of its CEO. Mattel subsequently sells Mindscape to Gore Technology Group for just a share of the profits that Gores could obtain by selling the properties.
- 2001: Mindscape is made a separate company in following the purchase of the international division of The Learning Company from the Gore Technology Group by Jean-Pierre Nordman.
- 2002: Montparnasse Multimedia is purchased by Mindscape.
- 2005: Mindscape purchases the studio Coktel Vision - owners of the brands ADI and Adiboo - from Vivendi Universal Games
As of 2006, Ubisoft continues to publish Chessmaster titles. Broderbund is the new publisher of Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing.
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