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28-433: Eat My Dust is a racing video game developed by Davidson & Associates, Inc. , Funnybone Interactive , and Van Duyne Engineering . It was published by Sierra On-Line on Windows in 1996. The game received mixed reviews. Gamer's Zone rated the game 3 out of 5, writing "To sum up, this is a nice little offering. The four different racecourses, as well as the internet competition option, promise anyone aged eight and up

56-449: A Costa Mesa, California -based video game developer , in a stock deal valued $ 6.75 million ; the acquisition was announced publicly the following month. In March 1994, Davidson acquired Learningways , an educational software firm from Cambridge, Massachusetts , for an undisclosed sum. On April 12, 1994, Davidson entered into two agreements with Simon & Schuster to fund the development, marketing and distribution of titles for

84-512: A Securities and Exchange Commission investigation into what, at the time, was the biggest accounting scandal in corporate history. Their main product, a shopping service, originally a membership telephone-based drop-ship service called Comp-U-Card begun in 1973, was made available online to users of The Source in the mid-1980s, and later CompuServe after its purchase of The Source. It later offered its Shoppers Advantage service on America Online , Prodigy , GEnie and Delphi as well. It

112-777: A brand name for a time. In April 1999, Havas Interactive announced a reorganization of its senior management structure, which included the dismissal of Larry Gross as president of Knowledge Adventure. By the end of 1999, the Davidson & Associates brand name had ceased to be. CUC International CUC (Comp-U-Card) International Inc. was a membership-based consumer services conglomerate with travel, shopping, auto, dining, home improvement and financial services offered to more than 60 million customers worldwide based in Stamford, Connecticut , US, and founded in 1973 by Kirk Shelton and Walter Forbes . In 1998, it became involved in

140-452: A lot of entertainment." Electric Playground rated the game 3 out of 10, concluding its review by saying "And to top it all off, the whole game is just not very much fun. I know these companies can produce better stuff, I've seen it". A 1997 Games Domain review said "Eat My Dust offers nothing new to the racing genre. The graphics and the gaqmeplay [ sic ] have all been done before, and been bettered. Sierra have obviously aimed Eat My Dust for

168-829: A younger audience, and due to the limited gameplay, this is the only audience I can recommend this to." But even that younger audience is well advised to stick with Mario Kart on the console systems rather than play this inferior copy-cat." Home of the Underdogs noted "One of the most little-known games published by Sierra, Eat My Dust by Funnybone Interactive is a decent racing game for kids that in many ways merits its obscurity." Davidson %26 Associates, Inc. Davidson owned several studios, including Funnybone Interactive , Learningways , Capitol Multimedia , and Blizzard Entertainment . Other subsidiaries included First Byte, Maverick Software, Fas-Track and Educational Resources as well as Gryphon Software. Davidson & Associates

196-503: Is unlikely to ever receive the full amount, as according to the payment schedule of US$ 2,000 per month ordered by the judge, it would take over 134,000 years to pay. Investigators found that over US$ 500 million in non-existent company income had been reported during 1996 and 1997. Membership sales revenue had been overreported and membership cancellations information held back, allowing for the company's earnings to be manipulated at will. With too much debt and too little real income, however,

224-695: The Morgan Stanley group took CUC public in the United States in 1983 and raised $ 20 million. During the 1980s and early 1990s, CUC continued to grow and acquire other companies. It made strategic deals with other entertainment, communication, retail and investment companies such as America Online and AT&T. and grew to have over 30 million customers via its mail order clubs. CUC did not make any large acquisitions until 1995. Before that time, all acquisitions were relatively small and strategic. In February 1996, seeking to expand its operations into

252-618: The "long-running financial fraud" which, it alleged, started in 1995. The SEC stated that CUC inflated its books in order to inflate its stock price, which allowed it to use its stock to buy other companies, and in turn these mergers and acquisitions were executed in order to generate financial reserves and purchase reserves that were intended to be "big enough to bury the fraud". Shelton was convicted in January 2005 of 12 counts of fraud and related charges and sentenced to 10 years in prison. Shelton and Forbes were tried together. Although Shelton

280-509: The Davidson' departure, Chris McLeod, the CEO of CUC Software, was placed in charge of Davidson & Associates as chief executive officer . On April 16, 1997, Davidson purchased Animation Magic , the animation division of Capitol Multimedia , consisting of offices in Maryland and St. Petersburg, Russia, and retained the senior personnel of Capitol Multimedia and Animation Magic. This division

308-423: The acquisition by CUC. Both would become members of CUC's board of directors , while Bob would also become a vice chairman of CUC. On January 21, 1997, both Davidsons announced that they had resigned from their respective positions at CUC Software and Davidson & Associates to pursue personal interests, although both of them stayed part of the board of directors of CUC International. Immediately following

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336-552: The company's research and development, while Bob handled Davidson's marketing, sales and corporate strategy. In May 1992, Davidson acquired Educational Resources, Ltd. In April 1993, the company became publicly traded on the Nasdaq stock exchange under the ticker symbol "DAVD". By February 1994, sales generated by the company's software totaled to US$ 40 million . On February 18, 1994, Davidson & Associates acquired Chaos Studios (later renamed Blizzard Entertainment),

364-551: The field of interactive entertainment, CUC approached the software companies Sierra On-Line Inc. and Davidson & Associates Inc. It bought Sierra for $ 1.06 billion and Davidson for $ 1.14 billion, both in stock. These acquisitions allowed CUC, as a larger outlet, to streamline its distribution network. In addition, product placements and advertisements in these software companies' products allowed CUC to find new customers in demographics it had not previously reached. In December 1997, CUC merged with HFS Incorporated . A competition

392-529: The home market. Davidson at this time also agreed to provide a minimum of $ 15 million of development services to Simon & Schuster over the five-year period of the agreement for the development of SimonSchuster's educational software for the school market. In February 1995, Davidson acquired Funnybone Interactive , a developer of children's entertainment and educational software, headquartered in Canton , Connecticut . By 1995, Davidson employed 327 people. By

420-453: The internet and sites such as Amazon.com, this idea was innovative. CUC went through various company presidents and lost a lot of money during the 1970s. By 1979, it was losing more than $ 2 million a year . By 1983, Forbes and his company had found investors such as Reader's Digest and Eckerd Drugs but had lost nearly $ 14 million. After licensing their "interactive shopping" idea in Europe,

448-554: The new brand was introduced, Cendant disclosed that for three years prior to the merger, CUC had fraudulently overstated its income by over US$ 500 million. This caused Cendant stock to plummet from $ 39 to $ 20 in a single day, eventually reaching $ 9, and costing shareholders about US$ 14 billion. Cendant/CUC was eventually required to pay more than US$ 2.85 billion in class action settlements to shareholders. The Securities and Exchange Commission brought civil charges against CUC's president Kirk Shelton and CEO and chairman Walter Forbes , for

476-446: The real resources of the company were dwindling, despite the considerable flotation of the stock numbers. As the imaginary books and the real company finances diverged more and more, the requirements of appearances became greater. Even the cooked books were insufficient to cover all of the company's losses, at which time it turned to mergers with, and acquisition of, new companies. Purchased companies' assets could be similarly inflated, and

504-634: The release of Reading Blaster : Ages 9–12 in March 1998. The products of Knowledge Adventure and Davidson were grouped together as being part of CUC Software's Educational Division, which Gross also headed. By October 1998, the company's brand name was retired, and was merged with that of Knowledge Adventure . Davidson's Math Blaster , Reading Blaster , Fisher Price and Syracuse Learning product lines, as well as Sierra's Dr. Brain product line, were transferred to Knowledge Adventure. Control of Davidson's subsidiary studios such as Funnybone Interactive

532-623: The time the company would be merged with Knowledge Adventure in 1998, it would employ over 800 people. On April 13, 1995, the Company announced the formation of NewMedia, a value-added distributor of consumer multimedia software to the mass-merchant channel with toy manufacturer Mattel. On February 21, 1996, CUC International announced that they had agreed into acquiring Davidson & Associates, alongside software publisher Sierra On-Line , for $ 1.8 billion in total. On March 9, 1996, Davidson purchased Condor, Inc. , which after acquisition

560-530: The worldwide market for full-service timeshare exchange services" according to the Federal Trade Commission , caused the FTC to require "the parties to divest one of their timeshare exchange companies to re-establish a viable competitor in the market". Cendant Software, composed of Sierra, Davidson & Associates (including Blizzard Entertainment ), Knowledge Adventure and Gryphon Software ,

588-512: Was also transferred to Knowledge Adventure, with the exception of Blizzard Entertainment , which became a separate division of Cendant Software . By December 1998, Davidson's website would redirect to Knowledge Adventure 's website, while the Torrance, California offices of Davidson & Associates would, as of 2001, continue to serve as the headquarters for Cendant Software's successor, Havas Interactive . Despite this, Davidson continued as

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616-477: Was at the time was helping to develop Blizzard's ultimately cancelled Warcraft Adventures . In June 1997, Davidson launched a new product line entitled Math For The Real World . The same month Davidson announced a new student aimed development line called Educast By late 1997, Larry Gross, the CEO of Knowledge Adventure had been named as the President of Davidson & Associates and Davidson announced

644-669: Was convicted of all 12 charges brought, the jury was unable to reach a verdict for Forbes on any charge. A hung jury also deadlocked Forbes' second trial and a third trial was set for September 2006. Retried and convicted, he was sentenced to 12 years on January 17, 2007. The former CUC chief financial officer Cosmo Corigliano , former comptroller Anne Pember and former accountant Casper Sabatino all pleaded guilty in June 2000 to several fraud and related charges. In addition to their prison terms, Shelton and Forbes were each ordered to pay Cendant US$ 3.275 billion in restitution. Cendant

672-622: Was held internally at CUC, primarily among its senior marketing staff but open to all employees, to come up with a new corporate name. The winner was to receive dinner "anywhere in the world". No employee submission was selected to win, as the name of the company had already been decided. The new company was named Cendant . After the merger, Cendant retained its core business as a direct marketer and thereafter also specialized in hotel franchises, car rentals, travel agencies and its consumer software operations, Cendant Software. The merger of these two companies, which between them owned "a virtual monopoly in

700-423: Was known chiefly for their Blaster series of educational games, including Math Blaster as well as their licensed games based on the products of Fisher-Price . Davidson & Associates was founded in 1982 by Bob and Jan Davidson, husband and wife, to publish Jan's educational Software. In 1989, Bob Davidson was named chief executive officer of the company, while Jan acted as company president . Jan headed

728-407: Was perhaps the first company conducting electronic commerce , although its web based service first went online in 1995. CUC's main line of operations was its mail-order clubs such as Shopper’s Advantage, AutoVantage, Traveler’s Advantage and its Comp-U-Card program, and it had been trying to find a way to streamline its clubs and sell retail through a kind of interactive television. In an age before

756-495: Was renamed to Blizzard North for 225,409 shares of Davidson Common Stock. After the acquisition by CUC closed in July 1996, CUC International formed CUC Software around Davidson & Associates and its Torrance, California offices. Bob Davidson became chairman and chief executive of the new establishment while remaining chief executive officer of Davidson & Associates. Jan Davison remained as president of Davidson after

784-718: Was sold in 1998 to the French publisher Havas , which then merged with Vivendi , which then merged its games business with Activision . After the accounting scandal, the original Comp-U-Card division was bought out by some remaining executives and reorganized into a company called Trilegiant . It was later renamed Affinion Group and is still located in Stamford, Connecticut. On October 23, 2005, Cendant Corporation announced its decision to split into four separate companies: Realogy , Travelport , Wyndham Worldwide and Avis Budget Group ." On April 16, 1998, less than one year after

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