Softkey International

Personal computers cannot sew T-shirts or manufacture coffee mugs, at least not directly. But enterprising software developers have figured out ways to enable you and your PC to create these and other items, thus adding a new dimension to holiday gift giving. Even if you want to stick with more traditional gifts, you can still use your PC and printer to make greeting cards, holiday posters and banners. Gift Maker ($45.

Wall Street stocks rose Monday, buoyed by sharp gains in technology shares. Uncertainty over Quebec's sovereignty vote kept some investors wary, although the fears were offset by news of Mexico's new economic pact, which sent Mexican shares soaring. The Dow Jones industrial average ended up 14.82 points at 4,756.57. In the broader market, advancing issues led declines 1,274 to 973 on moderate volume of 318 million shares on the New York Stock Exchange.

Ending an often-nasty five-week takeover battle, SoftKey International Inc. on Thursday overcame rival Broderbund Software Inc. and reached an agreement to acquire educational software maker Learning Co. for $606 million. SoftKey's successful bid, combined with its earlier acquisition of Minnesota Educational Computing, makes it the largest company in the fast-growing educational software market. Learning Co.

By the standards of corporate America, where multibillion-dollar mergers and takeover battles have become routine, the fight for educational software maker Learning Co. is a small-time affair. Broderbund Software Inc. of Novato, Calif., is currently offering $530 million in cash and stock for the company in a friendly offer, while hostile rival SoftKey International Inc. has bid $606 million in cash. It's chump change compared with Disney's $19-billion merger with Capital Cities/ABC Inc.

Signaling both the rapid consolidation underway in the multimedia software business and the swift rise of electronic commerce, a major East Coast marketing company said Tuesday that it will acquire both Davidson & Associates, the Torrance-based educational software leader, and Sierra On-Line Inc., a Bellevue, Wash.-based interactive entertainment company, in a pair of stock swaps worth a combined $1.7 billion. CUC International Inc., a Stamford, Conn.

A 7-year-old would rather: (a) blast aliens (b) rocket through space (c) learn multiplication Hint: The answer ain't (c). Though sales for the video game industry have hit record levels in recent years, the market for children's educational software has imploded. Once totaling half a billion dollars, children's educational software sales in the United States shrank to $325 million last year. This year, things have slowed even more.

Born of the outrageous riches pouring from the high-tech economy and the often young age at which fortunes have been amassed, a new malady has emerged: sudden wealth syndrome. The term was coined by Bay Area clinical psychologist Stephen Goldbart and psychotherapist Joan DiFuria, who both noticed increasing psychological problems among the newly minted multimillionaires they saw.