Starwave Corporation
IndustryDigital content
Founded1993 (1993)
Defunct1998 (1998)
FateAcquired by The Walt Disney Company, 1998
SuccessorWalt Disney Internet Group
HeadquartersBellevue, Washington, U.S.
Key people
Paul Allen, Mike Slade, Patrick Naughton

Starwave was a Seattle, Washington-based software and website company, founded in 1993 by Paul Allen,[1] co-founder of Microsoft and led by CEO Mike Slade.[2][3] The company produced original CD-ROM titles, including Muppets Inside, and titles for Clint Eastwood, Sting,[4] and Peter Gabriel. They were the original developers of Castle Infinity, the first massively multiplayer online role-playing game for children, but Starwave's most lasting mark was in the area of web content sites. They developed ESPN.com, ABCNEWS.com, Outside Online, and Mr. Showbiz.com among other sites, setting the standard for much of the commercial Internet explosion of the late 1990s. Starwave also developed the first site and publishing system for Jim Cramer's TheStreet.com.

Disney

The company merged with Infoseek and was later sold to The Walt Disney Company. In April 1998, Disney purchased the outstanding shares of Starwave from Allen[5][6] after an initial buy of about 30% in 1997.[1] The new entity, Walt Disney Internet Group (WDIG) developed the Go.com portal.

In 2004, Disney re-activated the Starwave identity as Starwave Mobile, which published casual games for mobile phones.[7] They published several Scarface licensed games including Scarface: Money. Power. Respect. and games from Capybara Games including Critter Crunch.

References

  1. 1 2 "Disney buys stake in Starwave". News.cnet.com. Archived from the original on 1 February 2014. Retrieved 31 January 2014.
  2. ↑ "Mike Slade on 80s Microsoft, NeXT, Starwave and Steve Jobs' Return to Apple". Archived from the original on 2019-06-06. Retrieved 2019-11-09.
  3. ↑ "How this Seattle venture capitalist ended up being the subject of ESPN's hilarious new ad campaign". 25 January 2016. Archived from the original on 28 June 2019. Retrieved 9 November 2019.
  4. ↑ "Starwave Teams With Sting and A&M Records To Create Interactive CD-ROMs". Business Wire. 30 May 1995. Archived from the original on 9 July 2009. Retrieved 24 June 2008.
  5. ↑ Pelline, Jeff; Dawn Kawamoto (April 30, 1998). "Disney to buy Starwave". CNET News. Archived from the original on 29 October 2013. Retrieved 31 January 2014.
  6. ↑ "Volume 146, Number 50752". New York Times. 4 April 1997. p. C4. Archived from the original on 25 December 2012. Retrieved 31 January 2014.
  7. ↑ "Newly Formed Starwave Mobile Announces Initial Content Lineup". Business Wire. 25 October 2004. Archived from the original on 3 February 2014. Retrieved 24 June 2008.
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