driving down the development costs of products and laying off employees of the companies it acquired. Casey Dworkin, publisher of Retail Price Week, said that SoftKey appeals to companies that want to "sell software by the pound, appealing to impulse purchases by customers who are intrigued but don't want to drop $40 for a piece of software." They compared SoftKey's practices to a laundry-detergent maker marketing a premium-brand version, a lower-end brand, and a generic version of the same product. SoftKey built a business by acquiring struggling software companies, repackaging and repricing its products. "SoftKey believes that much consumer software is overpriced and therefore cannot reach a broad market. It's a philosophy that clashes with the artistic sensibilities of many in the multimedia software business—but is nonetheless likely to become increasingly influential in the volatile software world." Profit SoftKey Software Products was the fastest growing company in Canada in 1992, with sales of $36.8 million and profit of $6.1 million. Its most profitable products were its tax-software and processing service. By April 1995, SoftKey's stock was valued at $25.50, about 20 times the year's earnings. A public offering of 2.3 million common shares was priced at $28.875. SoftKey products were sold in more than 19,000 stores in over 40 countries In June of that year, Montgomery Securities raised more than $60 million for the company. In October, SoftKey raised another $350 million in an unrated private offering. On November 28, 1995, SoftKey rose from 3.2 million to 4.7 million shares, the largest increase in open positions among Nasdaq issues. In August 1998, the stock exchange halted trading in The Learning Company, as the company issued a statement to clear up questions about its accounting practices. Shares of The Learning Company (NYSE: TLC) fell 1 15/16 to 26 3/8 and Mattel (NYSE: MAT) plunged 20 percent to 23 11/16. The company continued to grow, with revenue of $800 million despite an accumulated deficit of $1.1 billion by the end of 1998. History In 1986, Canadian businessman and investor Kevin O'Leary along with John Freeman started SoftKey Software Products, Inc. in O'Leary's basement with a loan of $10,000 from his mother. He convinced other companies to bundle SoftKey's products with their own, later licensing software from other firms, which proved more cost-effective than internal development. In 1993, SoftKey International was created out of a three-way merger between SoftKey Software Products, WordStar International,