Brøderbund

Brøderbund Software was an American maker of computer games, educational software and the Print Shop productivity tools, founded in 1980 by brothers Doug and Gary Carlston for the purpose of marketing Galactic Empire, a computer game that Doug had created in 1979. Their sister, Cathy, joined the company a year later.

Brøderbund scored an early hit with the game Galactic Empire, written by Doug Carlston for the TRS-80, and went on to become a motivating force in the educational and entertainment software markets with titles such as Prince of Persia, Fantavision, Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego?, Karateka, Choplifter, Apple Panic, Wings of Fury, Lode Runner, In the 1st Degree, The Last Express and Myst, which stayed in the top 10 list of home computer games for years.

The company was one of the most dominant publishers in the computer market of the 1980s, releasing video games for virtually all major computer systems in the U.S. This included not only the popular IBM PC-DOS personal computer, but also the leading home computers from the decade, notably the TRS-80, the Apple II, the Commodore 64 and the Atari 8-bit. The company also licensed some of its titles to European and Japanese companies who ported Broderbund's games to the different home computers of these regions, such as the Amstrad CPC, the MSX and the ZX Spectrum.

For a short period of time, Brøderbund was involved in the video game console market when they published a few games for the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES). However, all of their NES games, including their own franchises Raid on Bungeling Bay, Lode Runner and Spelunker, were developed by third-party Japanese companies. Brøderbund also developed and marketed an ill-fated NES controller device known as the U-Force, which was operated without direct physical contact between the player and the device. They also published some titles that were produced by companies that didn't have a North American subsidiary, such as Legacy of the Wizard (the fourth instalment in Nihon Falcom's Dragon Slayer series) Compile's The Guardian Legend and Imagineer's The Battle of Olympus.

In 1984, Brøderbund took over the assets of the well-regarded but financially-troubled Synapse Software. Although intending to keep it running as a business, they were unable to make money from Synapse's products, and closed it down after a year.

Brøderbund also published Family Tree Maker (a genealogy program supported by hundreds of CDs of public genealogy data), the Print Shop series of desktop greeting card making programs and 3D Home Architect, a program for designing and visualising family homes. By the end of the 1980s, games represented only a small percentage of Brøderbund's annual sales, which by then were heavily focused in the productivity arena and early education and learning areas.

Brøderbund became a public company in 1991, with their stock price and market capitalisation climbing steadily to a maximum of just under USD$80/share in late 1995, and then fell steadily in the face of continued losses for a number of years. The company went on to form a joint venture with Random House Publishing to create the Living Books series. However, despite the quality and success of the Living Books series, the joint venture was marginally successful and was dissolved in 1998.

Brøderbund was purchased by The Learning Company in 1998 for about USD$420 million in stock, and in a move to rationalise costs, The Learning Company promptly terminated 500 employees at Brøderbund (about 42% of the company's workforce). The combined company was bought in 1999 by Mattel for the sum of $3.6 billion. However, Mattel suffered from the financial impact of this huge transaction, and Jill Barad, the CEO, was forced out in a climate of investor outrage. Mattel then gave away The Learning Company in September 2000 to Gores Technology Group, a private acquisitions firm, for a share of whatever Gores could obtain by selling the company. In 2001, Gores sold The Learning Company's entertainment holdings to Ubisoft, and most of the other holdings, including the Brøderbund name, to Irish company Riverdeep. Currently, all of Brøderbund's games, such as the Myst series, are published by Ubisoft.

Broderbund (with an o instead of the 'ø' character), is now the brand name for Riverdeep's productivity, graphic design and edutainment titles, such as Mavis Beacon, The Print Shop, the Living Books series, Carmen Sandiego and Reader Rabbit titles, and also publishes software for other companies, notably Zone Labs' ZoneAlarm.