Pearson Announces Deal With Clancy's Red Storm Entertainment

Posted on August 4, 1997

Pearson plc, through The Penguin Group, has announced a long-term strategic agreement with Red Storm Entertainment Inc., a multiple media entertainment company founded by best selling author Tom Clancy and Virtus Corporation, a provider of interactive 3D business applications.

The Penguin Group and other Pearson subsidiaries will partner with Red Storm Entertainment, Inc. to market a new generation of multiplayer online games and other multiple media products. Red Storm Entertainment, Inc. currently is developing four titles and will release its first game this Fall, Tom Clancy's Politika, a multiplayer game about a power struggle among factions in Russia following the death of President Boris Yeltsin. In July 1997 Berkley announced that they will release Tom Clancy's new Politika novel bundled with the interactive game of the same title.

Doug Littlejohns, President and CEO of Red Storm Entertainment, Inc., said, "This is by far the most important day in the history of our company. We will be able to use this landmark partnership to expand Red Storm Entertainment's business rapidly and we are delighted to gain access to the global media organization which is Pearson. As you will see in the coming months, we will work with Pearson companies to bring to market innovative products through a variety of media as we create and proliferate the next generation in online game playing for thousands of people around the world."

Michael Lynton, Chairman and CEO of The Penguin Group, said, "We are pleased to be entering into this agreement with Red Storm Entertainment to reach a huge array of new markets with new products and new media. We look forward to working with Tom Clancy, Doug Littlejohns and their team at Red Storm Entertainment as they realize their vision of a new kind of interactive storytelling going forward into the 21st century."

As part of the agreement, Putnam Berkley, Tom Clancy's longtime publisher in the US, and now part of Pearson's Penguin Group, will obtain the global English language rights to two major novels which will be published in England by Penguin U.K.

Marjorie Scardino, Chief Executive of Pearson, said, "We've enjoyed a long, successful publishing relationship with Tom Clancy through Putnam Berkley and now we are excited to be expanding our relationship on a global scale, as well as partnering with his new media venture. Red Storm Entertainment is something special and we're happy to contribute to its growth and development."

Tom Clancy, founder and Chairman of Red Storm Entertainment, Inc., said, "Putnam and I have been partners for over 12 years, and now we can be partners for the invention of a new art form. This is the beginning of a new form of storytelling, partnering one of the world's leading publishers and Red Storm Entertainment, a new company with a new vision."