ASCII Corporation

K. K. ASCII (Japanese株式会社 アスキーKabushiki - gaisha Asuki, english ASCII Corporation ) was a publisher of video games magazines and a producer of computer games, headquartered in Chiyoda, Tokyo Prefecture, Japan. The company was bought by Kadokawa Group Holdings in 2004 and merged with a subsidiary of Kadokawa Media Works on April 1, 2008 on the company ASCII Media Works. The publisher published as the main product, the magazine Monthly ASCII.

History

1977-1989

ASCII was founded by Kazuhiko Nishi and Keiichiro Tsukamoto in 1977. First, the publisher brought out a magazine with the same name ASCII. Following discussions between Kazuhiko Nishi and Bill Gates, the company was the first mainstay of Microsoft in Japan in 1979 was called the ASCII Microsoft.

1984 ASCII rose into the semiconductor business and expanded in 1985, the business with commercial online services under the brand ASCII NET from. As the video game market flourished in the 1980s, developed and drove the company software for various consoles and home computer systems, such as for the Nintendo Entertainment System, Sega Mega Drive and MSX.

After the IPO of Microsoft in 1986, the Japanese company ASCII Microsoft has become independent again. ASCII had to be restructured because in the early 1980s greatly in their business orientation diversified. In 1989, the company on the stock market.

1990s

In March 1996 ASCII reported a profit of 56 billion yen. Of which fell on the publishing industry 52.5 %, to computer games 27.8 % of the semiconductor manufacturing 10.8 %, and the remaining portions of 8.9%. Despite the effort to focus on its core business, the company suffered under more and more accumulated debt. 1997 CSK Holdings attacked the company with a shopping into private capital under the arms.

ASCII was known in the U.S. with their 1991 opened subsidiary ASCII Entertainment, which was active mainly in the software market. The ASCII Keiichiro Tsukamoto co-founder left the company, and in 1992 to found his own company Impress. The offshoot Agetec ( for " Ascii Game Entertainment TEChnology ") was founded in 1998 by ASCII, a year later he became independent.

2000s

In 2001 it was announced that CSK will transfer the shares in ASCII in the fund Unison. Unison stopped short ASCII on its core business (publishing ), and thus the computer game production was suspended on March 2002. ASCII was eventually bought in 2004 by the group of companies to Kadokawa Shoten ( Kadokawa Shoten Publishing engl. ) and merged with the subsidiary Kadokawa Media Works on April 1 2008 ASCII Media Works.