Sale To Infogrames
By the middle of 2000, the dot-com bubble had burst, Hasbro share price had lost 70% of its value in just over a year and Hasbro would post a net loss the first time in two decades.
Faced with these difficulties in 29 January, 2001, Hasbro sold 100% of Hasbro Interactive to French software concern Infogrames. The sale included nearly all of their video game related rights and properties, the Atari brand and Hasbro's Game.com division, legendary developer MicroProse and over 250 software titles, but didn't include Avalon Hill property. Hasbro Interactive's sale price was $100 million being $95 million as 4.5 million common shares of Infogrames and $5 million in cash. Under the terms of the sale agreement, Infogrames gained the rights to develop games based on Hasbro properties for a period of 15 years plus an option for an additional 5 years based on performance. Hasbro Interactive became Infogrames Interactive and after May 2003 was renamed to Atari Interactive Inc, a wholly owned subsidiary of Infogrames Entertainment SA (IESA). Infogrames (now itself known as Atari SA) still maintains ownership of the original Atari properties received through Hasbro which are kept in their Hasbro Interactive originated placeholder, Atari Interactive, Inc.
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Famous quotes containing the word sale:
“People buy their necessities in shops and have to pay dearly for them because they have to assist in paying for what is also on sale there but only rarely finds purchasers: the luxury and amusement goods. So it is that luxury continually imposes a tax on the simple people who have to do without it.”
—Friedrich Nietzsche (18441900)