Atari - Infogrames Finalizes U.S. Acquisition

Gamesindustry.biz posts the latest developments in the ongoing saga of the troubled United States game publisher Atari,Inc, the stateside branch of the Atari brand. Parent company Infogrames has finalized their $11 millon bid and now has full ownership of the company. Here's a rundown:

The French company, which earlier this year surprised many by appointing former EA executive David Gardner as CEO and former Sony Worldwide Studios boss Phil Harrison as president, can now definitively unite the Atari brand, the use of which Infogrames has had the right to in Europe and other parts of the world for some time.
Lyon-based Infogrames previously owned 51.4 per cent of Atari Inc's stock and the merger, initially agreed on April 30 this year, completed on a base price of USD 1.68 per outstanding share.
Atari Inc's former management team of Jim Wilson, Tim Flynn and Jeff Reese will remain with the company to focus on growing the historically-troubled Atari brand in North America under Gardner's new vision.
Infogrames also outlined the strategy that the combined company will follow moving forwards under its new "simplified global structure":

• Reduce general and administrative expenses, including costs related to being a US public company, and generate economies of scale
• Provide greater opportunities to develop the US distribution business and find new partnerships
• Strengthen the US online platform to develop online operations

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I've never understood this. I know its some sort of accounting trick but I just don't get it.

It looks to me like Rockefeller is buying Esso before it Standard Oil was even broken up.

Originally Posted by Lucky Day
I've never understood this. I know its some sort of accounting trick but I just don't get it.

It looks to me like Rockefeller is buying Esso before it Standard Oil was even broken up.

Which bit don't you get?

Previously Infogrames owned a majority stake in Atari Inc, but because it was only a partial stake they could not do certain things that required say 85% or whatever of the shares, like de-listing and becoming a fully owned subsidiary perhaps.

So they've bought out the rest of the shares, have complete ownership of the company and can at last join it to the Atari EU etc operations. Which for one will save me from repeating the explanation so much in forums

But Atari and Infogrames are more or less the same, aren't they ?

Who cares? It's not the same Atari company we grew up with, which died a long time ago. It's just a name now.

Yes, I know this. That's why I'm still calling them Infogrames internally.

Originally Posted by Alrik Fassbauer
But Atari and Infogrames are more or less the same, aren't they ?

Until recently no. But now, yes. Well, Atari is a subset of Infogrames. There are some bits of Infogrames outside of Atari still I guess, but all of Atari is now inside Infogrames.