SoftKey International (originally SoftKey Software Products, Inc.) was a software company founded by Kevin O'Leary in 1986 in Toronto, Ontario. It was known as The Learning Company from 1995 to 1999 after acquiring The Learning Company and taking its name. SoftKey played a major role in the dissolution of the edutainment industry by the turn of the millennium. Contributing factors include its reduction of the market price by releasing shovelware discs of freeware and shareware, hostile takeovers of major edutainment software companies, reduction of these acquisitions to a skeleton staff, and questionable financial practices to maintain its stock price. In 1999, the company was acquired by Mattel in what Businessweek called one of "the Worst Deals of All Time". It was subsequently folded into Mattel Interactive, Riverdeep Interactive Learning, and Software MacKiev. Products SoftKey published and distributed CD-ROM-based personal computer software for Windows and Macintosh computers during the late 1980s and 1990s. Its lineup consisted of software intended for home audiences, specifically shovelware discs containing various freeware or shareware game software. The company enjoyed great success by offering "jewel-case only" products, dubbed its "Platinum" line. As a home and small office software publisher, SoftKey bought the rights to application packages from their authors and distributed them under its own "Key" label. By late 1992, SoftKey was distributing 35 different products in this manner. SoftKey began to develop its own software by 1994, and had branched out to include edutainment games and CD-ROMs in its line of products. In 1986, SoftKey released specialized graphics package KeyChart for the IBM PC and compatibles, designed to make time-consuming plotting easier. In 1993, it was selling KeyMap, a DOS-only software that offered maps, route planning, and a database tool for annotating maps. Around this time, Computer Associates acquired Easy Tax (DOS) from SoftKey and sold it as Simply Tax. SoftKey's acquisition of The Learning Company added the Reader Rabbit and Math Rabbit educational video games to its collection. Its acquisition of MECC added The Oregon Trail, Word Munchers, Number Munchers and Storybook Weaver. With the acquisition of Broderbund, it obtained multiple award-winning brands including Carmen Sandiego, The Print Shop, Living Books, Family Tree Maker, Arthur, and KidPix. Marketing According to founder Kevin O'Leary, SoftKey's business model was to market its retail products "no different from cat food or any other consumer good." It was one of few companies to rent space in stores to