Editing MECC (section)

== Acquisition by SoftKey ==
MECC was financially successful and dominated the market for [[Apple II]] software used within schools, but its management believed that the company needed more capital in order to compete for the home market and to develop software for other platforms, such as the [[IBM Personal Computer|IBM PC]] and the [[Mac (computer)|Macintosh]]. As the state of Minnesota did not have the capital to fund such plans, it spun off the company as a private corporation in 1991 to the [[venture capital fund]] North American Fund II{{r|lafrenz19950413}}<ref>{{cite web|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090810141841/http://geocities.com/meccalumni/Timeline902.html |url=http://geocities.com/meccalumni/Timeline902.html |title=MECC Timeline 1990-1992 |access-date=2014-03-27 |archive-date=2009-08-10 |url-status=dead}}</ref> for $5.25{{Nbsp}}million. An IPO followed in March 1994. In October 1995, the publicly traded company, with about $30{{Nbsp}}million in annual revenue&mdash;about one third from ''The Oregon Trail''{{r|lafrenz19950413}}&mdash;was acquired by [[SoftKey]] for $370{{Nbsp}}million in stock as part of a series of consolidations in the educational software market.<ref name="lussenhop20110119" />

Although MECC continued to develop software after its acquisition, including the successful ''[[Oregon Trail II]]'' in 1995, Softkey (then named The Learning Company) was acquired by [[Mattel]] in 1999 in what ''[[Bloomberg Businessweek|Businessweek]]'' called one of "the Worst Deals of All Time",<ref name=":plays one">{{Cite news|title=Kevin O'Leary: He's not a billionaire, he just plays one on TV|url=https://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/rob-magazine/kevin-oleary-hes-not-a-billionaire-he-just-plays-one-on-tv/article4564334/?page=all|url-status=live|access-date=September 10, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160902050919/http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/rob-magazine/kevin-oleary-hes-not-a-billionaire-he-just-plays-one-on-tv/article4564334/?page=all|archive-date=September 2, 2016|df=mdy-all}}</ref> leading to the a great deal of financial repercussions that year, including the closure of the MECC offices in [[Brooklyn Center, Minnesota]], in October 1999.{{r|lussenhop20110119}}<ref>{{cite web |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090810141841/http://www.geocities.com/meccalumni/Timeline979.html |url=http://www.geocities.com/meccalumni/Timeline979.html |title=MECC Timeline 1997-1999 |archive-date=2009-08-10 |access-date=2014-03-27}}</ref>