an advertisement . please help improve it by removing promotional content and inappropriate external links and by adding encyclopedic content written from a neutral point of view . november 2015 learn how and when to remove this template message gaiam is a corporation that provides fitness products and media including products relating to the practice of yoga . its yoga videos are taught by instructors such as rodney yee . gaiam pronounced guy um is a fusion of the words gaia and i am . gaia mother earth was honored on the isle of crete in ancient greece 5 000 years ago by the minoan civilization . the concept of gaia stems from the ancient philosophy that the earth is a living entity . its brands include gaiam tv which changed its name to gaia in 2016 . 1 contents 1 history 2 gaia 3 references 4 external links history edit gaiam was founded in boulder colorado in 1988 by jirka rysavy . 2 his vision was to serve the conscious consumer a group subsequently named the cultural creatives by sociologist paul ray in 1996 educated consumers who make purchasing decisions based on their values . 3 paul ray now serves on gaiam s board of directors . originally a catalog business gaiam now has products in stores worldwide . in 2003 it bought a 50.1 % share in its uk distributor leisure systems international lsi . lsi subsequently changed its name to gaiam ltd. 4 in may 2008 however the uk directors of gaiam ltd bought back their share of the business and changed the company name again to hab international ltd. in 2001 gaiam merged with real goods solar a california based company specializing in the production and distribution of solar power systems other renewable energy equipment and off grid sustainable living products . 5 in 2005 gaiam acquired the media assets of goodtimes entertainment inc and jetlag productions which included brands such as gt xpress the firm and billy blanks . 6 gaiam has been known to attempt to market cheap knock off products such as a v deo brinquedo dvd entitled the frog prince 2009 an imitation of walt disney pictures the princess and the frog 2009 under the name of the former goodtimes brand even when this company has no association with the production or the product itself . gaiam launched real goods in 2008 to provide off grid living items like solar power invertors and tankless water heaters . in 2007 gaiam acquired both lime.com 7 and zaadz.com 8 for a greater community presence . zaadz then was renamed gaia.com but it was deemed unprofitable and eventually it was shut down in 2010 . in 2012 gaiam acquired a dvd distributor from universal music group distribution a subsidiary of vivendi and merged it with its home entertainment division forming gaiam vivendi entertainment . 9 10 gaia edit in 2011 gaiam inc announced the launch of gaiam tv 11 a streaming video subscription service offering streaming of over 5 000 films and documentaries dedicated to yoga fitness conscious media personal growth and spirituality . many of the titles in gaiamtv s library feature respected experts and individuals such as rodney yee and jillian michaels as well as deepak chopra and the dalai lama . in december 2012 gaiamtv.com announced a new original show with george noory 12 host of radio s coast to coast am . the new show covers many of the topics such as psychic vampires privacy issues and topics that generally fall outside of what mainstream media will cover . similar to other streaming video services gaiam tv is available on a variety of platforms including roku ipad and iphone . on 20 november 2015 gaiam tv announced that it has changed its name to gaia . 13 references edit miller ben 11 may 2016 . gaiam metamorphosis will sell its yoga brand and also change its name . denver business journal . retrieved 8 august 2016 . gaiam third child of entrepreneur rysavy boulder county business report november 1 1998 p. 1 . ray p. h. 2001 . the cultural creatives how 50 million people are changing the world . new york broadway gaiam inc. 2003 . 10 k annual report 2003 . retrieved december 20 2012 from gaiam corporate website gaiam real goods to merge denver post october 17 2000 p. c2 . gaiam closes goodtimes entertainment deal at 35m . denver business journal . 9 14 2005 . retrieved 12 20 2012 . gaiam zaadz lime media & conscious enlightenment create unified source for lohas . bloomberg . 6 6 2007 . retrieved 12 20 2012 zaadz green living social network acquired . mashable . 6 6 2007 . retrieved 12 20 2012 gaiam completes acquisition of vivendi entertainment creating gaiam vivendi entertainment the nation s largest independent content distributor marketwatch gaiam acquires vivendi entertainment deal creates major indie distrib of nontheatrical content . variety magazine . 4 3 2012 . retrieved 12 20 2012 gaiam inc 2011 . 10 k annual report 2011 . retrieved december 20 2012 from gaiam corporate website . george noory s online tv show launches december 14th . all access . 12 11 2012 . gaiam tv is now gaia . retrieved 24 november 2015 from gaia corporate website . external links edit official website retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title gaiam & oldid 733617954 categories entertainment companies of the united statescompanies established in 1988yoga organizationscompanies based in coloradocompanies based in boulder county coloradogoodtimes entertainmenthidden categories articles with a promotional tone from november 2015all articles with a promotional tone navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search navigation main pagecontentsfeatured contentcurrent eventsrandom articledonate to wikipediawikipedia store interaction helpabout wikipediacommunity portalrecent changescontact page tools what links hererelated changesupload filespecial pagespermanent linkpage informationwikidata itemcite this page print export create a bookdownload as pdfprintable version 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