Davidson & Associates
 | |
| Industry | Educational software |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1989 |
| Defunct | 1999 |
| Fate | Merged into Knowledge Adventure |
| Successor | Knowledge Adventure |
| Headquarters | Torrance, California |
Key people | Dr. Jan Davidson, Founder & President[1] Jack R. Allewaert, Vice President & Chief Financial Officer |
| Products | Blaster Learning System |
Number of employees | 296[2] |
| Parent | Independent (1989–1996) CUC International (1996–1997) Cendant Corporation (1997–1998) Havas S.A. (1998) Vivendi Universal Games (1998–1999) |
Davidson & Associates (or simply Davidson) was an educational software company headquartered in Torrance, California[3] and published the Blaster series, including Math Blaster and Reading Blaster.
History
In 1995, Davidson released 3D Jungle Train for Windows 95 based on new 3D software in which the player had to find a lost diamond and would be rewarded with a video adventure to other parts of the jungle. Bob and Jan Davidson sold the company in the early 1990s and founded the Davidson Institute for Talent Development.
In 1989, Bob Davidson became Chairman and CEO of Davidson and Associates, Inc. Jan Davidson continued her role as President focusing on building the product development side of the business. In the next few years, Bob formed strategic partnerships with Fisher Price, Simon & Schuster, Kaplan, Inc. and made several strategic acquisitions, including Blizzard Entertainment in 1994.[4] In 1996, the company was acquired by CUC International and merged with another large educational software company, Knowledge Adventure which published the JumpStart series of educational games. In 1994, Todd Coyle was recruited to repair stagnant sales and consumer revenues reached an explosive growth of $900 million by the time of his departure in 2000. over a 1000% growth in 6 years.[5]
See also
References
- ^ ""Bob and Jan Davidson: Founders of Davidson Institute for Talent Development"" (PDF).
- ^ "Davidson & Associates Inc · 10-Q · For 3/31/96".
- ^ "Davidson & Associates." BusinessWeek. Retrieved on June 1, 2010.
- ^ Wyatt, Patrick (2012-07-25). "The making of Warcraft part 1". Archived from the original on 2013-06-21. Retrieved 2013-08-11.
- ^ http://www.forbes.com/1997/05/23/videogames.html
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- Defunct software companies of the United States
- Defunct software companies
- Defunct video game companies
- Educational software companies
- Companies based in Los Angeles County, California
- Defunct companies based in California
- Companies based in Torrance, California
- United States video game company stubs
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