Brøderbund Software, Inc.

Brøderbund was founded by Doug and Gary Carlston in 1980; established the company in order to market Galactic Empire and Galactic Trader, computer game programs Doug had written in his spare time when he wasn't practicing law. The company was located in Novato, California (USA).

Brøderbund became a leading worldwide publisher of productivity and rich media software with more than 40 million users. Brøderbund published and distributed some of the all time best selling consumer software such as The Print Shop, PrintMaster, 3D Home Architect, and Family Tree Maker. The Brøderbund brand also included software products for creating, managing and sharing rich media content such as photos, video editing and music.

In May 1997, Brøderbund established the Red Orb Entertainment publishing label for mature games, to distinguishing them from its library of edutainment titles.

In 1998, it became a wholly owned subsidiary of Iowa based publisher The Learning Company. Less than a year later, in 1999, Mattel purchased both The Learning Company and Brøderbund. Financial difficulties occurred under Mattel's leadership, and it was sold again to Gores Technology Group which turned the company around and announced profits after only 75 days. Ubi Soft purchased Brøderbund's Entertainment Division in March 2001, while Riverdeep Interactive Learning acquired its Education Division in September of that year. Then, in August 2002, all of Brøderbund became part of Riverdeep Interactive Learning. At some point after this, they were purchased by WD Encore Software.