Foundation 9 Entertainment, Inc. was an American video game company based in

Irvine, California Irvine () is a master-planned city in South Orange County, California, United States, in the Los Angeles metropolitan area. The Irvine Company started developing the area in the 1960s and the city was formally incorporated on December 28, 197 ...

. The company was formed in March 2005 through the merger of video game developers Backbone Entertainment and The Collective.

History

Foundation 9 Entertainment was founded on March 29, 2005, in

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, through the merger of video game developer Backbone Entertainment and The Collective. The company's initial management board consisted of Jon Goldman (

chief executive officer A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a central executive officer (CEO), chief administrator officer (CAO) or just chief executive (CE), is one of a number of corporate executives charged with the management of an organization especial ...

), Andrew Ayre and Douglas Hare (co- presidents), Gary Priest and Mark Loughridge (co- chairmen), Richard Hare ( chief creative officer), Jeff Vavasour ( vice-president of Canadian operations), Steven Sardegna ( chief financial officer), and Larry Kelly ( chief operating officer). Shortly after the merger, on April 12, Foundation 9 acquired and integrated Pipeworks Software. Subsequently, Dan Duncalf, the company's president and co-founder, joined Foundation 9's board of directors. In May, Foundation 9 acquired an equity stake in Circle of Confusion, a Hollywood management company, to establish a

strategic partnership A strategic partnership (also see strategic alliance) is a relationship between two commercial enterprises, usually formalized by one or more business contracts. A strategic partnership will usually fall short of a legal partnership entity, agency, ...

. On June 1, 2006, investment firm Francisco Partners (as advised by

UBS Securities UBS Group AG is a multinational investment bank and financial services company founded and based in Switzerland. Co-headquartered in the cities of Zürich and Basel, it maintains a presence in all major financial centres as the List of large ...

) agreed to provide in funding to Foundation 9 over a time frame of several years, with additional funding to be provided when needed. The investment was followed by the acquisitions of Shiny Entertainment from Atari in October 2006, Amaze Entertainment and related studios in November 2006, and Sumo Digital and its Indian sub-studio in August 2007. Under the terms of Shiny's acquisition, the studio would co-locate and merge with The Collective. The merger was formally announced in October 2007, at which point both studios had moved to new offices in

. The amalgam was named Double Helix Games in March 2008. In January 2008, Foundation 9 promoted David Mann (previously chief operating officer), Chris Charla and Jack Brummet to president, vice-president of business development, and vice-president of quality assurance, respectively, followed by James North-Hearn, one of Sumo Digital's founders, becoming the chief executive officer of the company in March. In July 2008, Foundation 9 reinstated Griptonite Games and Fizz Factor, two studios absorbed into Amaze in 2005, under their original brandings. However, in July 2009, Fizz Factor was closed down entirely, while Amaze was merged into Griptonite and Double Helix suffered staff cuts. FXLabs, based in

Hyderabad Hyderabad ( ; , ) is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of Telangana and the ''de jure'' capital of Andhra Pradesh. It occupies on the Deccan Plateau along the banks of the Musi River (India), Musi River, in the northern part ...

, India, was acquired by Foundation 9 in October 2010 and became part of Griptonite under the name Griptonite India. Griptonite was sold to

Glu Mobile Glu Mobile LLC is an American Video game developer, developer and Video game publisher, publisher of video games for mobile phones and tablet computers. Founded in San Francisco, California, in 2004, Glu offers products to multiple platforms inc ...

in August 2011 in exchange for 6 million shares of Glu's

common stock Common stock is a form of corporate equity ownership, a type of security. The terms voting share and ordinary share are also used frequently outside of the United States. They are known as equity shares or ordinary shares in the UK and other Com ...

. Backbone's location in

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had been closed in May 2009, and in October 2012, its ImaginEngine studio was closed as well, while its primary location in

Emeryville, California Emeryville is a city located in northwest Alameda County, California, in the United States. It lies in a corridor between the cities of Berkeley and Oakland, with a border on the shore of San Francisco Bay. The resident population was 12,905 a ...

, laid off the majority of its staff. In February 2014, Double Helix was sold to

Amazon Amazon most often refers to: * Amazons, a tribe of female warriors in Greek mythology * Amazon rainforest, a rainforest covering most of the Amazon basin * Amazon River, in South America * Amazon (company), an American multinational technolog ...

. Later that year, under advisory from GP Bullhound, Foundation 9 sold Pipeworks to Italian publisher

Digital Bros Digital Bros is an Italian video game company that develops, publishes and distributes games. It publishes games under its 505 Games subsidiary brand since 2007 and established video game development school, ''Digital Bros Game Academy'', in 20 ...

, and Sumo Digital to its own management, the latter of which was backed by NorthEdge Capital. In 2015, Foundation 9's board of directors elected to dissolve the company.

Subsidiaries

* Amaze Entertainment (2007–2009) – Merged into Griptonite Games * Backbone Entertainment (2005–2015) – Closed ** Backbone Charlottetown (2006–2007) – Closed ** Backbone Emeryville (2005–2015) – Closed ** Backbone Vancouver (2005–2009) – Closed ** Games2Learn – Closed ** ImaginEngine (2005–2012) – Closed * The Collective (2005–2007) – Merged into Double Helix Games * Double Helix Games (2007–2014) – Sold to Amazon Game Studios * Fizz Factor (2008–2009) – Closed * Griptonite Games (2008–2011) – Sold to

** Griptonite India (2010–2011) – Sold to

* Pipeworks Software (2005–2014) – Sold to

* Shiny Entertainment (2006–2007) – Merged into Double Helix Games * Sumo Digital (2007–2014) – Sold back to founders in a

management buyout A management buyout (MBO) is a form of acquisition in which a company's existing managers acquire a large part, or all, of the company, whether from a parent company or individual. Management-, and/or leveraged buyout became noted phenomena of ...

** Sumo India (2007–2014) – Sold back to founders in a

References

{{Reflist 2005 establishments in California 2015 disestablishments in California American companies disestablished in 2015 American companies established in 2005 Defunct companies based in Greater Los Angeles Defunct video game companies of the United States Video game companies disestablished in 2015 Video game companies established in 2005 Video game development companies