Fontaine Futuristics (Business)



Fontaine Futuristics is a business run and owned by Frank Fontaine and was one of the biggest businesses dealing with genetic enhancements in Rapture. It was the heart of biotechnology in Rapture, but also oversaw various other business endeavors owned by Frank Fontaine. It was nationalized by Andrew Ryan after Fontaine's "death," much to the chagrin of conscientious Bill McDonagh, inciting civil unrest.

Under Frank Fontaine
Fontaine funded Brigid Tenenbaum's research of ADAM. He also had a means to acquire girls to be made into Little Sisters and the facilities to research and produce the Plasmids (Fontaine Must Go, Rapture Changing).

Fontaine achieved vertical integration with the plasmid business: he effectively owned every step of the process:
 * Fontaine Fisheries, where the slug was found
 * The Little Sisters Orphanage to acquire girls, so as to make more Adam
 * Little Wonders Educational Facility to physically and mentally make the girls into Little Sisters capable of making, gathering, and recycling ADAM. He made the Little Sisters, and got the ADAM they made and collected.
 * Optimized Eugenics — the actual research and mass-production of plasmids and ADAM which Fontaine profited from.

However, Fontaine was not able to achieve horizontal integration due to plasmid production by Ryan Industries and Sinclair Solutions.

Known Employees

 * Brigid Tenenbaum (Fontaine Futuristics only)
 * Yi Suchong
 * Gilbert Alexander

Products

 * Accu-Vox Audio Diaries
 * Plasmids
 * Gene Tonics
 * Power to the People Machines
 * Various creams, pills and injections, as seen on a billboard.
 * Big Daddies

Under Ryan Industries
When Andrew Ryan took control of the business, the kidnapping of little girls to create the Little Sisters started, unlike Fontaine who used little girls voluntarily given to him through the Little Sisters Orphanage program. By this time Tenenbaum had left Fontaine Futuristics, so it was left to Yi Suchong to continue creating Little Sisters and Big Daddies. There appears to have been budgeting constraints under Andrew Ryan, as Suchong describes him as a cheap son of a bitch compared to Fontaine.

Unlike Fontaine, Andrew Ryan saw no need to hide the role of the Little Sisters from the citizens of Rapture. He brought them into the public eye by creating the Gatherer's Garden vending machines to sell Plasmids and Gene Tonics. These vending machines featured large figurines of smiling Little Sisters on either side. Later, Ryan changed the role of the Little Sisters, actually sending them out into the streets of to gather ADAM from corpses as the Civil War heated up. In response to the disquiet the Little Sisters caused among the citizens, Ryan created several Public Address Announcements suggesting that the Little Sisters were performing a noble service.