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==Under Spectrum Holobyte== In 1993, MicroProse Software was acquired by [[Spectrum Holobyte]], another video game company. Founder Bill Stealey was good friends with Spectrum HoloByte president [[Gilman Louie]], and convinced Louie to help MicroProse as Stealey was afraid that some banks would not understand the company culture. That same year, the UK office of MicroProse closed two satellite offices in northern England, and disposed of over forty staff at its Chipping Sodbury head office. In 1994, Bill Stealey departed MicroProse. Spectrum HoloByte agreed to buy out his shares. Bill Stealey went on to found [[Interactive Magic]], another simulation software company. Despite cuts, president Gilman Louie managed to line up several big name licenses, including ''[[Top Gun]]'', ''[[Magic: The Gathering]]'', ''[[Star Trek: The Next Generation]]'', and later ''[[MechWarrior]]'' (part of the Battletech universe). Also, the UK import of ''[[UFO: Enemy Unknown]]'', renamed as ''[[X-COM: UFO Defense]]'', proved to be an unanticipated hit in 1994. Spectrum HoloByte, however, was in trouble. It was trying to get ''[[Falcon 4.0]]'' out the door ever since it pushed out ''[[Falcon 3.0]]'' in 1991, and it had been delayed for many years. In 1996, Spectrum HoloByte bought out [[Simtex]], developer of ''[[Master of Orion]]'' and ''[[Master of Magic]]'', among other MicroProse bestsellers. Simtex became [[MicroProse Texas]], based in Austin, Texas. Both MicroProse and Spectrum HoloByte continued as separate brands until 1996. In 1996, Spectrum HoloByte, to reduce costs, started cutting a majority of the MicroProse staff. Soon after Spectrum HoloByte had consolidated all of its titles under the MicroProse brand (essentially renaming itself MicroProse), Sid Meier and Jeff Briggs departed the company, forming a new one called [[Firaxis Games]]. In 1997, MicroProse released ''[[Star Trek Generations]]'', where it met with poor reviews. In a 2004 interview Jeff Brigs commented his decision to leave MicroProse: :"''"Civ II had just come out and MicroProse had been purchased by Spectrum Holobyte. [...] Things had gotten pretty bad. By that time I was director of product development and they were asking me to do things and tell people things that I just didn't like. I decided that I could do a lot better job running the company than they could, so I left.''" Sid Meier and Jeff Briggs managed to convince Brian Reynolds, who designed ''[[Civilization II]]'', to leave MicroProse and join Firaxis as well. A core group of disillusioned artists, designers and programmers left MicroProse UK to join [[Psygnosis]], which opened an office in Stroud, UK, specifically to attract ex-MicroProse employees. ===GT Interactive's $250 million cancelled offer=== On October 5, 1997, [[GT Interactive]] announced that it had signed a definitive agreement to acquire MicroProse for $250 million in stock, the deal had even been unanimously approved by the Board of Directors of both companies. After the announcement MicroProse's stock price reached $7 a share. [[GT Interactive]] expected the deal to be completed by the end of that year. But on December 5, 1997, the acquisition was cancelled, according to both CEOs "''the time is simply not right"'' for the deal. MicroProse's stock plummeted to just $2.31 after the announcement of the deal's cancellation. ===Legal dispute over the Civilization brand=== In November 1997 MicroProse was sued by both [[Avalon Hill]] (who had the US publishing rights to the name ''Civilization'') and [[Activision]] for copyright infringement. MicroProse responded by buying [[Hartland Trefoil]], which had used the ''Civilization'' name in early game products and then sued Avalon Hill and Activision for trademark infringement and unfair business practices as a result of [[Activision]]'s decision to develop and publish ''Civilization'' computer games. Because [[Hasbro]] was negotiating the acquisition of both Avalon Hill and MicroProse, the lawsuits were settled in July 1998. Under the terms of the settlement MicroProse became the sole owner of the rights of the name Civilization and Activision acquired a license to publish a ''Civilization'' computer game which was later called ''[[Civilization: Call to Power]]''.
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