Starwave
| Industry | Digital content |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1993 |
| Defunct | 1998 |
| Fate | acquired by The Walt Disney Company, 1998 |
| Successor | Walt Disney Internet Group |
| Headquarters | Bellevue, WA |
Key people | Paul Allen, Mike Slade, Patrick Naughton |
Starwave was a Seattle, Washington based software and website company, founded in 1993 by Paul Allen,[1] co-founder of Microsoft. The company produced many original CD-ROM titles, including discs for Clint Eastwood, Sting,[2] and Peter Gabriel. They were the original developers of Castle Infinity, a multiplayer game released in 1996 that is still in production as of 2011 by a group of volunteers, but Starwave's most lasting mark was in the area of Web content sites. They developed ESPN.com, ABCNEWS.com, Outside Online, and Mr. Showbiz.com among other groundbreaking sites, setting the standard for much of the commercial Internet explosion of the late 1990s. Starwave also developed the first site and publishing system for Jim Cramer's TheStreet.com.
Disney
The company merged with Infoseek and was later sold to The Walt Disney Company. In April 1998 Disney purchased the outstanding shares of Starwave from Allen[3][4] after an initial buy of about thirty percent in 1997.[1] The new entity, Walt Disney Internet Group (WDIG) developed the Go.com portal.
In 2004, Disney re-activated the Starwave identity as Starwave Mobile, which publishes casual games for mobile phones.[5]
References
- ^ a b "Disney buys stake in Starwave". News.cnet.com. Retrieved 31 January 2014.
- ^ "Starwave Teams With Sting and A&M Records To Create Interactive CD-ROMs". Business Wire. 30 May 1995. Retrieved 24 June 2008.
- ^ Pelline, Jeff; Dawn Kawamoto (April 30, 1998). "Disney to buy Starwave". CNET News. Retrieved 31 January 2014.
- ^ "Volume 146, Number 50752". New York Times. 4 April 1997. p. C4. Retrieved 31 January 2014.
- ^ "Newly Formed Starwave Mobile Announces Initial Content Lineup". Business Wire. Business Wire. 25 October 2004. Retrieved 24 June 2008.
External links
- Starwave Takes the Web ... (Seriously) | Fast Company
- Starwave in Disneyland | Salon
- Starwavers List of Former Starwave Employees
- The Long Strange Trip to Java by Patrick Naughton, who left Sun for Starwave