FASA Corporation , p.n a former role-playing and wargaming company, based in Chicago, IL.
Addendum #1: From the FASA web site: "Founded by Jordan Weisman and L. Ross Babcock III, FASA Corporation is a leading developer and manufacturer of RPG products, miniatures and miniatures games. FASA Corporation has been creating successful game worlds since 1980. The (lines that were in production at its end) include BattleTech®,Shadowrun®, VOR: The Maelstrom™ and Crimson Skies™."
Addendum #2: The name is an acronym standing for: Freedonia Air and Space Administration, inspired by the country from the classic 1933 Marx Brothers movie Duck Soup. [RD]
Addendum #3: The name of the company is often snarked as: Foul-ups (or Fuck-ups) Are Standard Attachments. This has circulated in the Mid-Atlantic area for over 10 years, and is based on the fact that almost every FASA publication will have a table in it some where that is completely screwed up. In most cases, the screw-ups are columns shifted to the right or left; some times, they are worse, such as half of a table being intermixed with a table from a different page. [SB]
Addendum #4: FASA Inc. is no more. They closed their doors April 2001, and their various game lines sold to repay debt. WizKids & FanPro picked up the licenses for the Battletech lines (the former doing a MageKnight version of Btech, the latter doing the old style of Btech), and Shadowrun. [DM] WizKids itself went under, but the licenses, though owned by Topps Inc., are still going strong in the hands of Catalyst Game Labs.
Addendum #5: FASA lived on a bit longer in one way: when FASA began developing its properties to computer/console, they developed a subsidiary called “FASA Interactive”. FASA then sold the subsidiary to Microsoft in 1999, giving them exclusive rights to develop FASA properties for computer and console. Later known as FASA Studio, the company put out titles such as Mechwarrior 4 (PC), Mechassault (Xbox), and a Crimson Skies game. It produced a first-person shooter (very) loosely based on Shadowrun in 2007, just as Microsoft closed the studio's doors. A company called Smith & Tinker owned by Jordan Weisman, an early producer of Shadowrun that owned WizKids before it was sold to Topps, has the computer licenses now, with a Mechwarrior game reported to be worked on.