The Learning Company
One Athenaeum Street
Cambridge, MA 02142
USA

Year Founded: 1980
Year Defunct: 1999


The Learning Company (TLC) is an American educational software company, founded in 1980.
The company produced a grade-based system similar to Knowledge Adventure's JumpStart series.
The products for preschoolers through second graders feature Reader Rabbit, and software for more advanced students features The ClueFinders.
The company also purchased Minnesota Educational Computing Consortium.

The original The Learning Company became the target of larger software firms interested in purchasing it.
In 1995 a "bidding war" took place between Broderbund and SoftKey, with the latter eventually acquiring TLC for $606 million in cash.
SoftKey took up The Learning Company's name and continued acquiring other software companies including Mindscape, Inc.
in March 1998 for $150 million and, ironically, former rival Broderbund in June of the same year for $416 million.
Mattel purchased the company in 1999 for $3.8 billion, renaming it "Mattel Interactive", but eventually sold it.

TLC, along with Broderbund, is now a subsidiary of Riverdeep, however some of the acquired entertainment holdings were sold to Ubisoft.