Atari Doing Well
Posted Friday, September 19, 2003 - 21:30 CET by Sorcerer

We just received the following press release from Atari, which indicates that they are doing very well indeed:

ATARI SETS TERMS OF $200 MILLION RECAPITALIZATION AND PRICES STOCK OFFERING

-- All Long-Term Debt Eliminated --
-- Net Proceeds of $35 Million --

New York, New York, September 18, 2003 -- Atari, Inc. (Nasdaq: ATAR) announced that it has set the terms of its $200 million recapitalization through the issuance of new shares priced at $4.25 under an agreement with its majority shareholder, Infogrames Entertainment, SA (IESA) and a previously announced public offering. Per this agreement, Atari will issue 39.03 million shares of its common stock, valued at $4.25 per share, to IESA, in satisfaction of $165.88 million net balance of Atari's indebtedness to IESA, of which IESA is selling 17.18 million shares at $4.25 per share in the public offering. Atari also is selling 9.82 million new shares of its common stock in the public offering at $4.25 per share, generating net proceeds of $35 million. UBS Securities LLC is acting as sole bookrunner, and Harris Nesbitt Gerard, Inc. and SoundView Technology Group are acting as co-managers.

Upon completion of the public offering and these recapitalization transactions, Atari will have eliminated all of its long-term debt, and IESA's ownership stake in Atari will be reduced to 71% from approximately 88%. IESA has granted the underwriters an option to purchase 4.05 million shares to cover over-allotments at the same price of $4.25 per share.

Bruno Bonnell, Chairman and CEO of Atari, Inc. said, "The response to this offering marks the beginning of a new chapter for Atari. After having restructured our operations and having doubled our U.S. market share in the past two years, we now emerge with a stronger balance sheet and a larger public float. Atari is now a profitable company with no long-term debt and a much stronger cash position to face the challenges of the future."
A final prospectus relating to the offering may be obtained from UBS Securities LLC, 299 Park Avenue, New York, NY 10171-0026; Harris Nesbitt Gerard, Inc., 360 Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10017; and SoundView Technology Group, 1700 East Putnam Avenue, Old Greenwich, CT 06870-1333.

About Atari
New York-based Atari, Inc. (Nasdaq: ATAR) develops interactive games for all platforms and is one of the largest third-party publishers of interactive entertainment software in the U.S. The Company's 1,000+ titles include hard-core, genre-defining games such as Driver, Enter the Matrix, Neverwinter Nights, Stuntman, Test Drive, Unreal Tournament 2003, and Unreal Championship; and mass-market and children's games such as Backyard Sports, Nickelodeon's Blue's Clues and Dora the Explorer, Civilization, Dragon Ball Z and RollerCoaster Tycoon. Atari, Inc. is a majority-owned subsidiary of France-based Infogrames Entertainment SA (Euronext 5257), the largest interactive games publisher in Europe. For more information, visit www.atari.com.

Safe Harbor Statement
This press release includes forward-looking statements, as that term is defined in Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. Actual events may differ materially from what is described in this press release. Factors that could cause actual events to differ materially include, but are not limited to, failure of the proposed public offering to take place, either because of factors relating to Atari or because of negative market conditions.
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