Industry | Educational software |
---|---|
Fate | Merged into Knowledge Adventure |
Successor | Knowledge Adventure |
Founded | 1989 |
Defunct | 1999 |
Headquarters | Torrance, California |
Key people | Jack R. Allewaert Vice President, Chief Financial Officer, Mike Albanese Executive Producer, Todd Leonard CIO |
Products | Blaster Learning System |
Employees | 296[1] |
Parent | All American Television (1989-1991), Thorn EMI (1992-1996), Cendant Corporation (1996) |
Davidson & Associates (or simply Davidson) was an educational software company headquartered in Torrance, California.[2] It was best known for the Blaster series, including Math Blaster and Reading Blaster. 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 with the Warcraft, StarCraft, and Diablo products. In 1996, the company was acquired by CUC International and merged with another large educational software company, Knowledge Adventure best known for its JumpStart series of educational games.