In the world of games there are always winners and losers … recently Atari’s U.S. operations lost the financial game to use one of their lives to win the possibly win the survival game later.
After some nice anniversary celebrations last year for the 2600 and Pong, Atari made their Chapter 11 announcement on January 20, 2013. The reason? Separate from their French parent holding company Atari S.A. (formerly Infogrames). In 2010, Atari leveraged their popular game franchises to shift its work from retail game titles to digital games for Android and iOS and Android. The method worked as they saw success they had not seen for about 10 years. Recent offerings including Asteroids Gunner, Atari Casino, Breakout, Greatest Hits, Outlaw, and Rollercoaster Tycoon hope to turn the tide.
Now Former Atari CEO Frederic Chesnais wants to save Atari U.S. Operations from bankruptcy taking more than one-quarter stake in the company. BlueBay is currently the principal shareholder. Atari U.S. Operations is currently trying to separate operations from parent company Atari SA. Chesnais is French and lives in New York. He was previously Atari Interactive CEO and Atari Group CFO and Deputy Operating Officer.
Currently, assets to be sold before the end of May for the bankruptcy include Asteroids, Backyard Sports, Battlezone, Centipede, Humongous, Missile Command, Pong, Tempest, and Test Drive. The approximately 40-employee Atari U.S. operations branch will continue operations while the bankruptcy proceedings continue. What do you think of the bankruptcy and the overall Atari assets, brands, and franchises? Who else might try to buy them?