Navarre Corporation was an American public distribution and publishing company founded in 1983 by Eric H. Paulson. The company was headquartered in New Hope, Minnesota. Navarre owned three subsidiary companies: a software publisher, Encore, Inc.; a distributor, Navarre Entertainment Media; and a Japanese anime distributor, Funimation, which was acquired in 2005 and divested in 2011 to founder Gen Fukunaga.
The company also offered niche films through BCI Home Entertainment a.k.a. BCI Eclipse Company (formerly Brentwood), but this division was closed in a 2013 re-structuring due to the recession, after two years of being unprofitable.
History
The company was founded in 1983 by Eric Paulson.[1]
On November 21, 1989, Lieberman Enterprises (a subsidiary of LIVE Entertainment) announced that it would acquire Navarre for an undisclosed price.[2] The sale was completed on January 22, 1990, merging Navarre's computer products division into Lieberman.[3]