Infogrames offers to buy remaining Atari US stock

The revamp of Infogrames and the Atari brand continues – the French firm, which owns the Atari brand and is the majority shareholder in US subsidiary Atari Inc, has offered to buy the remaining stock of the company.

Atari said it had "received a letter from Infogrames Entertainment SA, Atari Inc’s major share holder regarding iESA’s non-binding expression of intent to acquire outstanding common stock" in the firm.

Infogrames said it would pay owners of the remaining stock a $0.02 premium on the price it closed at on NASDAQ, $1.66.

Although not guaranteed – the move needs the approval of the Atari board – the move would effectively turn the subsidiary private and makes good on new Infogrames CEO David Gardner’s promise to ‘reboot’ the firm and the Atari brand, as revealed by MCV a few weeks ago. Gardner told us that the situation with the US office was ‘not ideal’ – buying the firm up to bring it under Infogrames’ remit seems to be the solution.

Infogrames continues to grab headlines of late – it recently tempted former SCE worldwide studios figurehead Phil Harrison to join Gardner as president and help transform the company.