Author: John Merlino
Date: 12:02:08 08/17/02
Go up one level in this thread
On August 16, 2002 at 23:47:27, Albert Silver wrote: >On August 16, 2002 at 19:53:47, John Merlino wrote: > >>On August 16, 2002 at 19:05:09, Vincent Diepeveen wrote: >> >>>On August 16, 2002 at 15:38:13, John Merlino wrote: >>> >>>>On August 16, 2002 at 15:21:55, Vincent Diepeveen wrote: >>>> >>>>>On August 16, 2002 at 11:53:23, John Merlino wrote: >>>>> >>>>>the spirit of the argument is that if it would have worked for >>>>>NT 4.0 it would work for 2000/xp too!! >>>>> >>>>>obviously we're not personally blaming you. ubisoft wasn't owning >>>>>CM yet when 6000 was released, were they? >>>> >>>>No, they were not the owners. Nor were the people who Ubi Soft bought it from >>>>(Gores Technology group), nor were the people that THEY bought it from (Mattel >>>>Interactive). >>>> >>>>At that time Chessmaster was owned by The Learning Company and was released as a >>>>Mindscape product. This was almost exactly four years ago. >>> >>>Wow, that sounds real weird. Buying a product from someone who doesn't >>>own the rights on it. What happened that in the end ubisoft DID get the >>>rights? >> >>All of the owners mentioned above had the rights to the program at the time they >>owned it. I'm sorry if I made it sound confusing (or, rather, more confusing >>than it already is). The Chessmaster product line is just one of many that were >>sold when the above companies were sold. Here's the complete timeline: >> >>The Software Toolworks were the original owners of Chessmaster, first published >>in 1986. The Software Toolworks bought Mindscape around 1991 and shortly >>thereafter changed their name to Mindscape. >> >>Pearson PLC (a British publising congolmerate) bought Mindscape around 1993. >>They owned many companies, so Mindscape was still a separate entity, wholly >>owned by Pearson. >> >>Mindscape was then sold by Pearson to The Learning Company around 1995. The >>Learning Company was based in Massachusetts and specialized in educational and >>edutainment software. >> >>The Learning Company was bought by Mattel in 1998 and renamed to Mattel >>Interactive (we actually merged with Mattel's software division). We've all >>heard of Mattel, and their software division was riding high on huge Barbie game >>sales. However, the executives of The Learning Company did an excellent job of >>hiding how badly their company was doing overall, and less than a year later >>Mattel Interactive was losing $1 million per day. Mattel's CEO, Jill Barad, >>resigned less than 18 months later. From then on, Mattel tried desperately to >>find a buyer for Mattel Interactive. >> >>In late 2000, Mattel Interactive was sold to Gores Technologies Group (an >>American holding company that specialized in turning around financially troubled >>companies, sometimes selling them, sometimes keeping them). The price was, for >>all intents and purposes, "free". Actually, no cash was exchanged up front, but >>I believe quite a bit of money in "future considerations" eventually traded >>hands -- I really do not know. >> >>A few months later, after laying off a large amount of employees and cancelling >>many projects that were currently in development, Gores DID turn us around. They >>then sold us to Ubi Soft. The only internal development team that remained was >>Chessmaster -- all other developers were laid off. > >Congratulations on making the squeeze on every turn. No mean feat that. > > Albert Basically, I consider it the effect of two things: 1) Being on the right product at the right times, and 2) Being good at flying under the radar.... jm
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