Toy manufacturer Mattel Inc has stepped in to rescue Purple Moon, the computer games company targeting pre-teen girls which closed its doors last month (CI No 3,603). Mattel plans to incorporate the Purple Moon web site and CD-ROMs into its Mattel Media unit.
Purple Moon, founded in 1996 by Brenda Laurel as a spin-off from Paul Allen’s Interval Research Inc, established three brands of products: Rockett, Secret Paths and Starfire Soccer. The Rockett series was also planned to be the basis of a series of books, and Matell says it will support the proposed publication of the books by children’s book publisher and distributor Scholastic Inc later this year. Purple Moon has kept its web site operational and its products on the market after the closure, despite declaring that it had ceased operations and laid off all of its staff. Terms of the agreement were not disclosed.
Mattel Media, also founded in 1996 with the launch of the Barbie Fashion Designer CD-ROM, is now a $100m business. Mattel, which has $4.8bn in annual revenues, announced a definitive agreement to merge with education and entertainment software firm The Learning Company at the end of last year, in a transaction valued at around $3.8bn. Intel Corp is also collaborating with Mattel on joint development that is expected to eventually lead to a set of open standards for PC-to-toy connectivity. รก
