Davidson & Associates was founded in 1984 by Bob and Jan Davidson, husband and wife, in 1982. In April 1993, the company became publicly traded on the Nasdaqstock exchange under the ticker symbol "DAVD". By February 1994, sales generated by the company's software totaled to. On March 1, 1994, Davidson & Associates acquired Chaos Studios, a Costa Mesa, California-based video game developer, in a stock deal valued, as well as Learningways, an educational software firm from Cambridge, Massachusetts, for an undisclosed sum. In February 1995, Davidson acquired Funnybone Interactive, a developer of children's entertainment and educational software, headquartered in Canton, Connecticut. On February 21, 1996, CUC International announced that they had agreed into acquiring Davidson & Associates, alongside software publisher Sierra On-Line, for in total. As a result of the acquisition, CUC International formed CUC Software around Davidson & Associates and its Torrance, California offices. Bob Davidson became chairman and chief executive of the new establishment. On January 21, 1997, both Davidsons announced that they had resigned from their respective positions at CUC Software and Davidson & Associates to pursue personal interests, although both of them stayed part of the board of directors of CUC International. After the Davidson' departure, Chris McLeod, the CEO of CUC Software, was placed in charge of Davidson & Associates. In June 1997, Davidson launched a new product line entitled Math For The Real World. The same month Davidson announced a new student aimed development line called Educast By February 1998, Larry Gross, the CEO of Knowledge Adventure had been named as the CEO of Davidson & Associates and Davidson announced the release of in March 1998 By October 1998, the company's brand named was retired, and was merged with that of Knowledge Adventure. Davidson's Math Blaster, Reading Blaster, Fisher Price and Syracuse Learning product lines, as well as Sierra's Dr. Brain product line, were transferred to Knowledge Adventure. Control of Davidson's subsidiary studios such as Funnybone Interactive was also transferred to Knowledge Adventure, with the exception of Blizzard Entertainment, which became a separate division of Cendant Software. By December 1998, Davidson's website would redirect to Knowledge Adventure's website, while the Torrance, California offices of Davidson & Associates would, as of 2001, continue to serve as the headquarters for Cendant Software's successor, Havas Interactive.
