SoftKey

SoftKey International (originally SoftKey Software Products, Inc.) was a <a href="/facts/Software/RP79lVSW">software</a> company founded by <a href="/facts/Kevin_O%2527Leary/LqfKgmuU">Kevin O'Leary</a> in 1986 in <a href="/facts/Toronto/cnXH7881">Toronto</a>, Ontario. It was known as The Learning Company from 1995 to 1999 after acquiring <a href="/facts/The_Learning_Company/CLGNrYq3">The Learning Company</a> and taking its name.
SoftKey played a major role in the dissolution of the <a href="/facts/Edutainment/SXKNW3Dj">edutainment</a> industry by the turn of the millennium. Contributing factors include its reduction of the market price by releasing <a href="/facts/Shovelware/3u90v9Ra">shovelware</a> discs of <a href="/facts/Freeware/c8oGA9ju">freeware</a> and <a href="/facts/Shareware/TAhIvJXt">shareware</a>, <a href="/facts/Hostile_takeovers/JGfEbTy0">hostile takeovers</a> of major edutainment software companies, reduction of these acquisitions to a skeleton staff, and questionable financial practices to maintain its <a href="/facts/Stock_price/PlkFFTpT">stock price</a>.
In 1999, the company was acquired by <a href="/facts/Mattel/WM3blRN4">Mattel</a> in what <a href="/facts/Bloomberg_Businessweek/EsGLjcge">Businessweek</a> called one of "the Worst Deals of All Time". It was subsequently folded into <a href="/facts/Mattel_Interactive/06hQvXrd">Mattel Interactive</a>, <a href="/facts/Houghton_Mifflin_Harcourt_Learning_Technology/1gGnKkAo">Riverdeep Interactive Learning</a>, and Software MacKiev.

SoftKey open-in-new

SoftKey