Industry Educational software Founded 1989 Number of employees 296 | Defunct 1999 Successor Knowledge Adventure Ceased operations 1999 | |
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Fate Merged into Knowledge Adventure Key people Dr. Jan Davidson, Founder & President
Jack R. Allewaert, Vice President & Chief Financial Officer Products Blaster Learning System Subsidiaries Golden Books Interactive
Davidson/Simon and Schuster Headquarters Torrance, California, United States Parent organizations Vivendi Games, CUC International, Cendant, Havas, Avis Budget Group, Thorn EMI, All American Television Video games Math Blaster Episode I, Math Blaster Episode II, Fisher‑Price Great Adventur, Eat My Dust, Animaniacs Game Pack | ||
Davidson & Associates (or simply Davidson) was an educational software company headquartered in Torrance, California 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.
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.
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.