Synch Entertainment – A company that developed, manufactured, and distributed games and game systems. It had been around for over 50 years, with offices and plants worldwide, but not off-planet. Roarke looked into acquiring the corporation about a year before Fantasy in Death, but after research and vetting decided he didn’t want it at that time because it’s in trouble. He said, “Better to wait until it’s either limping along then buy it cheap, or wait until they shake things out, fix the problems, and offer a good price for a healthy company.”
They have closed two on-planet plants in the last sixteen months - small ones, outside the U.S. and they had no plants or offices off-planet, so they were either missing that market altogether, or the cost of distributing their products to that market would be prohibitive. Roarke said they had invested more, at least in the last decade, in marketing and execs than in creative minds and new technology, and they had continued to ignore the off-planet market, considering it too small and cost prohibitive. They were stuck in a certain mindset, and if it didn’t change, they’d shortly be a generation behind. The two people who founded the company sold it off during its prime, and at this point it was in a slow but steady downswing.
Lane DuVaugne was a VP of Development there, making $22 million annually, plus bonuses. He paid Milton Dubrosky nearly $150,000 for information about Fantastical.[1]
References:
- ↑ Fantasy in Death, Chapter 4