http://www.marinij.com/Stories/0,1413,234~24407~2098872,00.html
Riverdeep to close Novato offices, lay off 180
By Keri Brenner, IJ reporter.
Riverdeep Inc., a Novato education software company that in an earlier
incarnation was one of Marin's pioneer high-tech businesses, is closing its
local offices and laying off 180 workers, effective June 11.
The company, at 500 Redwood Blvd., filed with Marin County supervisors a
federally required notice of its intention to lay off employees and shut
down operations. Supervisor Cynthia Murray, whose district includes Novato,
said she received the notice - required by the federal Worker Adjustment and
Retraining Notification (WARN) Act - on Monday.
"It is a huge loss to Novato and to the county of Marin," Murray said. "It's
just one more indicator that Marin County needs to be more business-friendly
in order to retain the businesses that have been here so long and provided
so much to the community."
Besides Novato, the company has offices in Iowa and Dublin, Ireland, where
it has its headquarters.
The WARN notice read: "The planned (layoff) action is expected to be
permanent. The entire facility will be closed."
Riverdeep officials did not return phone calls for comment yesterday.
However, a press release dated April 13 - the same date at the top of the
WARN notice - announced a co-publishing partnership with Encore Software
LLC, a Los Angeles-based subsidiary of Navarre Corp., a software distributor
and publisher in Minneapolis.
According to a press release from Navarre, Encore and Riverdeep will be
co-publishing partners in selling and marketing River-deep products in the
United States. Encore will assume Riverdeep's total U.S. retail operations
in early 2005, the release said.
Reports that Riverdeep planned to open an office in San Francisco could not
be confirmed yesterday, and there was no word whether any of the Novato
workers would be offered employment elsewhere.
Riverdeep established itself in Marin in August 2002 when it acquired
Broderbund Software and, along with it, The Learning Company - both longtime
Marin education software firms. A year earlier, the Irish company had
acquired The Learning Company brand name.
At one time, Broderbund, under then-chief executive Doug Carlston, was a
large contributor to child care organizations in the county, Murray said.
Her son benefited greatly from an internship at Broderbund when he was in
high school six or seven years ago, she said.
"It will be a big loss to have 180 jobs leave the county," Murray added. "I
really hope we can work together to ensure we don't see more of these
closings in the future."
Changes in the company began surfacing at the beginning of last year.
In March 2003, River-deep, which has maintained both The Learning Company
and Broderbund as brands, announced it was launching a book publishing
division called Learning Company Books to leverage its popular education
software product lines into books for school children.
At that time, Riverdeep was a public company traded on stock exchanges in
Europe. A month later, however, Riverdeep's corporate hierarchy in Ireland
completed a management buyback, effectively taking the company back to being
privately held.
After that, the company began a wholesale reorganization, said Ciara M.
Smyth, executive vice president for human resources and administration, in
an interview last October.
"We want to start focusing internally and turn the business around," Smyth
said at the time. "We wanted to start thinking more about strategy, and
reinvigorate some of those brands like The Learning Company and Broderbund."
In the October interview, Smyth said the company had done some streamlining
already, going from a staff of 565 in January 2003 down to 440 in October.
That included about 50 workers in Dublin, 125 in Iowa, 225 in Novato and
other sales staff across the nation.
Also in October, River-deep put part of its Novato offices up for sublease.
The company declined comment at the time on the reason for the sublease.
The firm has a colorful, 23-year history in Marin.
Sibling team Doug, Gary and Catherine Carlston began Broderbund in 1981,
pioneering the concept of blending education with entertainment into
software titles.
The family sold the firm in 1998 to The Learning Company, a Boston firm
(formerly Softkey) that also bought Marin software companies Palladium and
Mindscape.
Toymaker Mattel Corp. bought The Learning Company in 1999 for $3.5 billion.
However, the toy giant sold it in what analysts called a "fire sale" to
Gores Technology Group of El Segundo a year later after losing more than $1
million a day.
Under Gores' ownership, the firm sold off its entertainment division, which
developed the top-selling Myst series, to UbiSoft Entertainment in March
2001.
In September 2001, the company changed its name back to Broderbund just as
it announced that River-deep was buying The Learning Company name and the
Novato firm's education unit for $60 million.
That unit encompassed the popular Carmen San-diego brand, as well as Reader
Rabbit and Mavis Beacon.
Contact Keri Brenner via e-mail at
Key events in Riverdeep history
1981: Broderbund Software launched by the sibling team of Doug, Gary and
Catherine Carlston. Concept was to blend education with entertainment in
software products.
1998: The family sells the firm to The Learning Company, a Boston firm that
also bought Marin software companies Palladium and Mindscape.
1999: Mattel Corp. buys The Learning Company in 1999 for $3.5 billion.
2000: Mattel sells The Learning Company to Gores Technology Group of El
Segundo after after losing more than $1 million a day.
September 2001: The Learning Company changes its name back to Broderbund
just as it announced that Riverdeep was buying The Learning Company name and
the Novato firm's education unit for $60 million.
August 2002: Riverdeep acquires Broderbund for $57 million.
March 2003: Riverdeep launches Learning Company Books division.
April 2003: The corporate parent of Riverdeep completes a management
buyback, taking the company private.
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