Atari to Raise $24 Million Through Asset Divestiture
- Atari to Sell Driver Franchise and Reflections Assets to
Ubisoft -
NEW YORK, July 13, 2006 -- Atari, Inc. (Nasdaq: ATAR) a leader
in interactive entertainment, today announced that it has
entered into an agreement with Ubisoft for the divestiture of
the Driver franchise and most of the assets of the Reflections
game development studio. The sale of the Driver intellectual
property and the Reflections assets for $24 million is the
latest initiative in the Company's previously stated plans to
refocus its portfolio of franchises as well as streamlining the
Company's cost structure. "The Atari name has been synonymous
with innovation since the beginning of interactive
entertainment," said Atari, Inc. Chief Executive Officer Bruno
Bonnell. "Over the years, we have created and nurtured some of
the industry's most successful franchises and we will continue
to do so. We are focusing the energy of the Company on a select
number of franchises in order to optimize their impact among
consumers and increase shareholder value. In the driving
category, we consider Test Drive our key franchise which will
require more resources and attention to build it as a landmark
of its genre." Atari will maintain sell-off rights for a three
month period for all Driver products except Driver: Parallel
Lines, which the company retains until end of calendar 2006.
Specific financial terms of the agreement were not disclosed
and the agreement between the two companies is subject to
normal closing conditions. The Company anticipates closing of
the transaction to be completed prior to the end of its fiscal
second quarter ending September 30, 2006. About Atari New
York-based Atari, Inc. (Nasdaq: ATAR) develops interactive
games for all platforms and is one of the largest third-party
publishers of interactive entertainment software in the U.S.
The Company's 1,000+ titles include hard- core, genre-defining
franchises such as The Matrix TM (Enter The Matrix and The
Matrix: Path of Neo) and Test Drive ® ; and mass-market and
children's franchises such as Nickelodeon's Blue's Clues TM and
Dora the Explorer TM , and Dragon Ball Z ® . Atari, Inc. is a
majority-owned subsidiary of France- based Infogrames
Entertainment SA (Euronext - ISIN: FR-0000052573), the largest
interactive games publisher in Europe. For more information,
visit www.atari.com. Ryan Barr of Atari, Inc, +1-212-726-6996,
ryan.barr@atari.com
