Foundation 9 Entertainment, Inc. was an American video game company based in Irvine, California. 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 Los Angeles, 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), 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 The chief financial officer (CFO) is an officer of a company or organization that is assigned the primary responsibility for managing the company's finances, including financial planning, management of financial risks, record-keeping, and financ ...

), 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 A board of directors (commonly referred simply as the board) is an executive committee that jointly supervises the activities of an organization, which can be either a for-profit or a nonprofit organization such as a business, nonprofit organiz ...

. In May, Foundation 9 acquired an equity stake in Circle of Confusion, a

Hollywood Hollywood usually refers to: * Hollywood, Los Angeles, a neighborhood in California * Hollywood, a metonym for the cinema of the United States Hollywood may also refer to: Places United States * Hollywood District (disambiguation) * 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 Atari () is a brand name that has been owned by several entities since its inception in 1972. It is currently owned by French publisher Atari SA through a subsidiary named Atari Interactive. The original Atari, Inc. (1972–1992), Atari, Inc., ...

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 Irvine, California. 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 Business development entails tasks and processes to develop and implement growth opportunities within and between organizations. It is a subset of the fields of business, commerce and organizational theory. Business development is the creation of ...

, and vice-president of

quality assurance Quality assurance (QA) is the term used in both manufacturing and service industries to describe the systematic efforts taken to ensure that the product(s) delivered to customer(s) meet with the contractual and other agreed upon performance, design ...

, 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, 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 in August 2011 in exchange for 6 million shares of Glu's common stock. Backbone's location in Vancouver had been closed in May 2009, and in October 2012, its ImaginEngine studio was closed as well, while its primary location in Emeryville, California, laid off the majority of its staff. In February 2014, Double Helix was sold to Amazon. 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 Amazon Games (formerly Amazon Game Studios) is an American video game company and division of the online retailing company Amazon that primarily focuses on publishing video games developed within the company's development divisions. History I ...

* Fizz Factor (2008–2009) – Closed * Griptonite Games (2008–2011) – Sold to Glu Mobile ** Griptonite India (2010–2011) – Sold to Glu Mobile * 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 1 ...

** 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