Posted By: oldman
The demise of Sierra on Line Adventure games - 05/19/02 06:09 PM
Hi all,
There have been some posts in the past wondering what happened to Sierra On Line and why they stopped creating Adventure Games.
I, having been a long time fan of them, wrote to Al Lowe and asked him point blank what the story was and he sent me a response that I'd like to share with all that might be interested.
My Question:
Al's Answer:
I for one think it's a shame that corporate piracy motivated by greed can force one of the founders of the Adventure Genre to lose their company and give up the creation that they worked so hard to build.
But, this is just one man's opinion.
There have been some posts in the past wondering what happened to Sierra On Line and why they stopped creating Adventure Games.
I, having been a long time fan of them, wrote to Al Lowe and asked him point blank what the story was and he sent me a response that I'd like to share with all that might be interested.
My Question:
Quote:
Hi Al Lowe,
I'm wondering if anyone will tell me the real deal behind Sierra. Did
Ken & Roberta Williams sell their company and take off in the wild blue
yonder or get forced out by a corporate takeover?
I'm wondering if anyone will tell me the real deal behind Sierra. Did
Ken & Roberta Williams sell their company and take off in the wild blue
yonder or get forced out by a corporate takeover?
Quote:
The short story is: one morning Ken learned that a company named CUC was going to offer 50% more/share of Sierra
stock than its current market price. They bought the company out from under us. They said "we want to keep everything
just the same" so of course the first thing they did was change everything! They merged with another corp named HFS,
named the combined company Cendant, which then had big "accounting irregularities" and was the target of a huge
shareholder suit (search the Internet for that one; it's a real education!). Ken was shuffled off to "start up our Internet
shopping site." And did. But it was too late. They pissed him off, wouldn't listen, he quit to start an Internet Talk Radio site
called Worldstream, which has sinced folded too.
Then Cendant sold off all the game companies they had bought two years before for a huge loss (paid $4 billion; sold for
$1.5 billion) to Havas, a French conglomerate that makes, among other things, jet engines, water treatment plants, and
educational books. Havas has merged with Vivendi, which then acquired Seagrams and Universal Studios! [blip]! If I
had only hung on longer, we could have had a Leisure Suit Larry theme park ride!! <grin>
There was no big conspiracy, only greed and incompetence (well, if you don't count the other just plain stealing) toward
Sierra. No one there had any idea what they had bought, so they dumped it. Damned shame.
stock than its current market price. They bought the company out from under us. They said "we want to keep everything
just the same" so of course the first thing they did was change everything! They merged with another corp named HFS,
named the combined company Cendant, which then had big "accounting irregularities" and was the target of a huge
shareholder suit (search the Internet for that one; it's a real education!). Ken was shuffled off to "start up our Internet
shopping site." And did. But it was too late. They pissed him off, wouldn't listen, he quit to start an Internet Talk Radio site
called Worldstream, which has sinced folded too.
Then Cendant sold off all the game companies they had bought two years before for a huge loss (paid $4 billion; sold for
$1.5 billion) to Havas, a French conglomerate that makes, among other things, jet engines, water treatment plants, and
educational books. Havas has merged with Vivendi, which then acquired Seagrams and Universal Studios! [blip]! If I
had only hung on longer, we could have had a Leisure Suit Larry theme park ride!! <grin>
There was no big conspiracy, only greed and incompetence (well, if you don't count the other just plain stealing) toward
Sierra. No one there had any idea what they had bought, so they dumped it. Damned shame.
But, this is just one man's opinion.