Atari
is a corporate and brand name owned by several entities
since its inception in 1972. It is currently owned
by Atari Interactive, a wholly owned subsidiary of
the French publisher Infogrames Entertainment SA (IESA).Atari
Interactive has in turn licensed the brand name and
assets to Atari, Inc. (NASDAQ: ATAR), a 51% majority
owned subsidiary of Infogrames Entertainment SA (IESA),
encompassing its North American operations.
The
original Atari Inc. was founded in 1972 by Nolan
Bushnell and Ted Dabney. It was a pioneer in arcade
games, home video game consoles, and home computers.
The company's products, such as Pong and the Atari
2600, helped define the computer entertainment
industry from the 1970s to the mid 1980s.
In
1984, the original Atari Inc. was split, and the
arcade division was turned into Atari Games Inc..Atari
Games received the rights to use the logo and
brand name with appended text "Games"
on arcade games, as well as rights to the original
1972 - 1984 arcade hardware properties. The Atari
Consumer Electronics Division properties were
in turn sold to Jack Tramiel's Tramel Technology
Ltd., which then renamed itself to Atari Corporation.
In 1996, Atari Corporation reverse merged with
disk drive manufacturer JT Storage (JTS), becoming
a division within the company.
Atari
Interactive started as a subsidiary of Hasbro
Interactive, after Hasbro Interactive acquired
all Atari Corporation related properties from
JTS in 1998.IESA in turn acquired Hasbro Interactive
in 2001, and proceeded to rename it to Infogrames
Interactive. In 2003, IESA then changed the company
name entirely to Atari Interactive.
The
company that currently bears the name Atari Inc.
was founded in 1993 under the name GT Interactive.
IESA acquired a 62% controlling interest in GT
Interactive in 1999, and proceeded to rename it
Infogrames, Inc. After IESA's acquirement of Hasbro
Interactive and its related Atari properties in
2001, Infogrames, Inc. intermittently published
Atari branded titles for Infogrames Interactive.
In 2003, Infogrames Inc. licensed the Atari name
and logo from Atari Interactive and changed its
name to Atari Inc.Currently, Atari Inc. develops,
publishes and distributes games for all major
video game consoles, as well as for the personal
computer, and is currently one of the largest
third-party publishers of video games in the United
States. (Credit:
Wikipedia).
