News
Upstarts rescued
Ronnie Dungan Jun 8 2007, 4:45pm
University Games has rescued troubled games firm Upstarts.
University Games Corp. was founded in 1985 by Bob Moog and Cris Lehman, who were friends at university.
The firm claims to distribute more product in more outlets and more markets than any other game company. It has five divisions – University Games (board games), Great Explorations (science and learning/novelties/Glow-in-the-Dark products), BePuzzled (puzzles), Colorforms (vinyl stick-on play sets, board games/travel, floor puzzles) and Spinner Books (books that you can read and play).
Upstarts!, founded in 1988, produces original board games, children’s action games TV-DVD games, creative product and humorous novelty items. The company produced Who Wants to be a Millionaire, which became the biggest selling brand in the toy industry in 2000, and was awarded game of the year in both 1999 and 2000.
The firm went into administration in April when it became apparent that on-going cashflow problems due to unsold stock of DVD games last Christmas were not going to be resolved and efforts to sell the business had failed.
“We look forward to strengthening our distribution in the United Kingdom with Upstarts, who are one of the leading games manufacturers in the UK”, said Bob Moog, president of University Games.
“University Games Corp’s library of products, covering many categories, will be a great addition to our Upstarts product line in the UK”, said Upstarts! managing director and founder Tom White. “We are excited to join forces with such a go-ahead and expanding company, and look forward to a promising future together”.
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