Remember Knowledge Advanture Worlds Inc, the company promising to stage a World’s Fair on the Internet (CI No 2,544)? Well Pearson Plc, owner of the Financial Times has bought the concept and into a related company. It is to invest $5.6m in Worlds Inc, and will have the largest minority shareholding – and opportunities to raise its stake if the company seeks additional capital in the future. Worlds Inc was set up by David Gobel, a co-founder of Knowledge Adventure, and Cole Larson, formerly head of multimedia applications at Microsoft Corp. Worlds says that it will launch its first major interactive products for the on- line consumer market later this year, and it has already released Worlds Chat, a three-dimensional multi-user environment.
