THQ Inc.
From Encyclopedia Hiigara
THQ Inc. is worldwide developer and publisher of interactive entertainment.
Company was found in April 1990 by Jack Friedman, and THQ was short for "Toy Headquarters". At the beginning company invested in various toys, like dolls or computer games. In 1991 company merged with Trinity Acquisition Corporation, and kept it's growth reaching 33 millions dollars sale at the end of first year after the merger. Later on the cooperation with Nintendo made it possible for THQ to expand beyond USA market. In that time THQ only designed games while other company developed it, and Nintendo published. in 1992 THQ acquired it's first software development company - the Black Pearl Software. Year 1993 brought great financial crisis. With almost $37,5 million of income from sold games, the company reached losses of $17,5 million. Despite of radical cuts in expenses company kept to bring only looses. It was till 1995 when Jack Friedman left THQ and Brian J. Farrell become company new CEO. Changes made by Farrell included firing half of personnel and moving game development to old platforms. Thanks to licenses of Walt Disney, LucasArts or MTV company end year 1995 with first for long time income of $600.000 . Since then company's income grow each year. In 1999 THQ bought Genetic Anomalies, Inc. and begun to produce it's first online games. In 2001 THQ bought Volition, Inc. and begun to buy various game developing studios as well as expanding it's network around the world. In 2004 THQ acquired Relic Entertainment which produced series of successful games from Warhammer 40,000 series license owned by THQ.
Currently THQ owns several Franchises including Homeworld bought from Vivendi Universal in 2007, 16 studios and several other divisions, employs over 1600 people worldwide, at the end of 2007 reached revenue of $1.35 billion USD.
