Atari parent juggles debt

It's been a bad year for the books of Atari and its parent company, Infogrames.

In February, Atari announced it was selling off its studios and trimming 20 percent of its worldwide workforce. May saw Vivendi Games take the Xbox 360 shooter TimeShift off Atari's hands in May, and US-based THQ bought the Stuntman license as well as Paradigm Entertainment, the game's maker. The next month, Atari sold the once-storied Driver franchise and its developer, Reflections Interactive, to Ubisoft.

Last week the publisher announced a new CEO in David Pierce. The appointment boosted Atari stock slightly, but not enough to avoid the NASDAQ market serving it with a notice of delisting.

However, if a debt-restructuring plan announced by Infogrames today works as expected, the publisher will completely wipe out its estimated 191.4 million euro ($242.96 million) debt. The plan calls for the publisher to add 25 million euros ($31.74 million) to an existing 20 million-euro ($25.34 million) short-term loan and modify a number of existing bond terms and agreements, among other things.

Some of the steps to be taken must first be approved by Infogrames shareholders and bondholders, as well as market authorities.