Davidson & Associates

Davidson

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, SVP & CIO
Products	Blaster Learning System
Number of employees	296
Parent	Independent (1989–1996) CUC International (1996–1997) Cendant Corporation (1997–1998) Havas S.A. (1998) Vivendi Universal Games (1998–1999)

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. 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 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.

See also

• Davidson Academy of Nevada