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Sep. 26--Kristin Asleson McDonnell goes a long way back in the games business as a marketing executive at Mpath Interactive and the Imagination Network. Now she's chief executive of LimeLife, a start-up company in Menlo Park that is making cell phone games for women.
Asleson McDonnell said in an interview she got the idea for the company over dinner with some longtime game industry veterans -- all women -- during the E3 trade show in 2004. They lamented that they didn't have games that could entertain them in a way that was relevant to their lifestyles. They wanted entertainment on their phones that could make them laugh, connect with friends, manage time and address topics like fashion or exercise.
Asleson McDonnell and two other friends founded the company to fill that gap in June 2004. Since that time, she says, "The outpouring of enthusiasm from women is amazing. It seems to be striking a chord."
HEY MOM! I GOT AN 'A' ON MY GAME! A lot of kids out there don't enjoy history, but they might like it better as a computer game.
That's why Muzzy Lane, based in Newburyport, Mass., made "Making History," a computer game releasing this month. It is aimed at college and high school kids so they can learn about World War II through their favorite medium.
The game is a multi-player strategy that has graphics reminiscent of the board game "Risk" and allows kids to step into the roles of country leaders at the outbreak of war. It's a historical simulation in which, for once, facts win out over entertainment.
The kids can play the first version of "Making History," dubbed "The Calm & The Storm," against each other in a classroom setting while the teacher moderates the game and even grades performance.
This game is the brainchild of Dave McCool, who got rich when Northern Telecom bought his communications start-up Aptis Communications. He took the money and decided to start Muzzy Lane in 2002. The company has spent about $3 million so far and it is now looking to raise venture capital, said Dave Martz, vice president of sales, who talked at the Video Game Investors Conference in San Francisco.
FORMER INSIDER'S VIEW Craig Conway, fired as PeopleSoft's chief executive officer before the company was bought by Oracle, was in England last week, where he told an Oxford University audience he made the company so successful that it became a takeover target.
"PeopleSoft's success became a threat in the larger overall technology industry, and ultimately made it a target for a hostile takeover," Conway told a crowd at Oxford's Said Business School, according to Bloomberg News.
Under Conway, PeopleSoft became the second-largest provider of business applications software and the company was ranked among the most admired in America by Fortune magazine in February 2002. Three days after PeopleSoft bought JD Edwards in June 2003, Oracle began its offer for PeopleSoft.
"Thus began one of the most difficult and confrontational tender offers in history," Conway said. He said the legal fees involved reached $200 million.
GOOGLERS GET LIFTOFF Every Silicon Valley tech giant has to have his jet. Google co-founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page apparently have settled on a Boeing 767 as their personal jet.
It's currently in Dallas getting interior work done, or at least that's according to Jeff Nolan at SAP Ventures, who said he'd bumped into a guy in the aviation industry who said as much.
In April, Chief Executive Eric Schmidt sold his ownership interest in his jet, which he had owned for several years and let the company use for business trips. In February, he purchased another jet, and the Google board agreed to reimburse him $7,000 an hour for its use.
By Dean Takahashi and Matt Marshall
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