The Learning Company
The Learning Company (TLC) was an American educational software company started in 1980 in Palo Alto, California. It created learning programs for kids, including the Reader Rabbit series for preschoolers to second graders and The ClueFinders for older students. TLC also published licensed educational games featuring characters like Arthur, The Powerpuff Girls, SpongeBob SquarePants, and Sesame Street. The company began with funding from sources like the National Science Foundation and developed titles for the Apple II and later for other platforms.
From 1980 to 1995, TLC grew quickly. By 1992 it went public, and the company reported steady revenue growth and improving profits through the mid-1990s. Its popular product lines included Reader Rabbit, Treasure Mountain Reading-Math-Science, Super Solver, and Foreign Language Learning. TLC’s early success made it a well-known case study at schools like Harvard and Stanford.
In December 1995, TLC was bought in a hostile takeover by SoftKey, which then renamed itself The Learning Company. Many staff were let go, and TLC gained the rights to Carmen Sandiego and Trail games through acquisitions of Broderbund and MECC. TLC later became part of Mattel in 1999. In 2001 its entertainment division was renamed Game Studios. In 2006 TLC became a brand within Houghton Mifflin Company, which merged with Harcourt and became Houghton Mifflin Harcourt in 2007. In 2018 TLC was folded into HMH, and in 2024 HMH rebranded simply as HMH, focusing on digital, K-12 learning solutions.
This page was last edited on 2 February 2026, at 11:20 (CET).