Atari borrows $10 mil, agony prolonged

by James Ransom-Wiley { Oct 25th 2007 at 4:26PM }

Who even knows what Atari is these days? In name, it's the industry's aging celebrity, revered in memory as an icon, but presently transformed, made grotesque by a series of desperate facelifts. It's a facade now, a listless publishing subsidiary of Infogrames.

The latest stirring, following the recent board makeover, is a small business transaction -- a $10 million loan from Infogrames shareholder Bluebay Asset Management. The credit won't be enough to get Atari through the costly holiday season, but it's a start. Further resources are currently be sought on the corner of 38th and 5th.

Tags: atari, infogrames

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Razorlution @ Oct 25th 2007 4:29PM

Maybe there old man owner who doesnt like the new games that are out now, needed a new wheelchair, the creator of pong has done nothing for us lately, and he's no Miyamoto.

Atari is just pissed because they cant keep up with the juggernauts in the gaming industry, and its only a matter of time before their bought by EA or something, just to put them out of misery.

AoE @ Oct 25th 2007 5:07PM

Um... what? Dude, you have no idea what you're talking about. No one that you're trashing is or has been related to Atari since the 80's; actually, most of them haven't even been doing anything remotely related to video games since then. And as for Atari being bought up by a Juggernaught? How about Time-Warner in the 70's? Or to Hasbro in the late 90's? Or what about in 2000 when Infogrames purchased Hasbro interactive (which included Atari) from Hasbro?

GRANTED @ Oct 25th 2007 4:30PM

it still makes money when geeks buy the t-shirt, right? that's gotta be a multi... thousand-dollar industry?

arrrgh @ Oct 25th 2007 4:30PM

brings up a good point tho...back when alone in the dark first came out, i always mispronounced infogrames to be "infogames" which makes MUCH more sense.

WHAT THE LIVING FUCK IS AN INFOGRAME. stupid company names ftl

AoE @ Oct 25th 2007 5:09PM

It's what happens when you let a computer name your company, lol. From wikipedia:

"They then, according to Bonnell in a TV interview, used a mix-and-match computer program to suggest other names, one of which was "Infogramme": a portmanteau of the French words "informatique" (information technology) and "programme" (a computer program). The final choice, "Infogrames", was a slightly modified version of that suggestion"

Crono (NDF - Knight of the Old School) @ Oct 25th 2007 5:21PM

So is it "Infograyms" or "Infogrammes"

Pronunciation, that is?

samfish (MSDF- Nurse Outfit!) @ Oct 25th 2007 4:32PM

"In name, it's the industry's aging celebrity, revered in memory as an icon, but presently transformed, made grotesque by a series of desperate facelifts. It's a facade now, a listless publishing subsidiary of Infogrames."

Are you saying that Atari is Cher?

kennethrios @ Oct 25th 2007 4:40PM

Just reading the word "Cher" makes me think of that video. You know the one.

Matt B @ Oct 25th 2007 4:48PM

"If I could turn back time......."

Shikatsu @ Oct 25th 2007 4:50PM

Bah! beat me to the punch! Only I was gonna go with Michael Jackson, but I guess that's too easy.

Crono (NDF - Knight of the Old School) @ Oct 25th 2007 5:39PM

Yeah, I think Michael fits that description better than cher. Not that Cher doesn't fit. Michaels just more high profile.

Moonwalker, and all...

ManekiNeko @ Oct 27th 2007 5:50AM

I was thinking Joan Rivers, myself.

"I had so many facelifts, they lifted it right off my body! It's true, it's true!"

kennethrios @ Oct 25th 2007 4:38PM

The Big N should buy Atari with all of their DS/Wii money and than have the ball from Pong be in Smash. Now that is a good idea.

JL @ Oct 25th 2007 4:39PM

agreed

arrrgh @ Oct 25th 2007 4:48PM

That would be amazing.

samfish (MSDF- Nurse Outfit!) @ Oct 25th 2007 4:51PM

Buying Atari would be akin to masturbating with a black cat under a ladder on the shards of a broken mirror while in King Tut's tomb.

kennethrios @ Oct 25th 2007 5:25PM

Any one who can refer to the curse of the pharaoh AND masturbation in one comment derseves a one up!

Kye (NDF - Earth Ring) @ Oct 25th 2007 6:56PM

That was a brilliant idea until Samfish talked sense into me.

Still, a brilliant idea.

Shibathedog @ Oct 25th 2007 5:10PM

How sad, Atari may close its doors....again.

Why is it that all these rags to riches(Atari)/pioneers of gaming (Sega) are failing and strange companies who at one point you would think would have nothing to do with gaming are succeeding? (Sony? Microsoft?)

samfish (MSDF- Nurse Outfit!) @ Oct 25th 2007 5:14PM

$$$$$

Mr Khan @ Oct 25th 2007 5:27PM

Its the sign of the industry's maturation, speciality corporations really don't exist in the real world, they're all generally part of large conglomerates or owned by a company whose business is completely unrelated

arrrgh @ Oct 25th 2007 6:16PM

well nintendo was a gaming pioneer since the card game days of yore....survival of the fittest. If you don't adapt, you're done.

(some bad business moves didnt help much...hellllo jaguar)

flcl @ Oct 25th 2007 5:17PM

Because the bigger companies have fallbacks. Until halo 3, m$ hadn't made any money from the games division, including the xbox1. But if the games only company does poorly, its pretty much it for them.

VampireHunter Z @ Oct 25th 2007 5:30PM

Really sad. They are more like a kid celebrity that got old. But didn't go to college so there is nothing to fall back on.

Sean @ Oct 25th 2007 5:32PM

10 million dollars that will be spent on cocaine.

meledeo @ Oct 25th 2007 6:14PM

I chuckled.

coolforever4537 @ Oct 25th 2007 6:42PM

At least everyone who buys Wheel of fortune games knows it'll go towards a good cause.

driven2sin @ Oct 25th 2007 6:59PM

Big N should by Activision so we get the Kaboom villian in Smash

ColossalHat @ Oct 25th 2007 7:00PM

"Further resources are currently be sought on 38th and 5th."

Shouldn't it be "Further resources are currently being..." or perhaps "resources are to be sought on..."?

Shattercross @ Oct 25th 2007 8:48PM

This is a meaningless death, the original Atari has been gone since the 80's. Infogrames just purchased the rights to the name so they could whore it for money- I'm glad that this name can finally rest in peace.

...now only if that horrible band, The Ataris could meet the same fate of their namesake.