Atari, Inc. (1993–present)

The GT Interactive Software Corp. was founded in February 1993 as a division of GoodTimes Home Video, a video-tape distributor owned by the Cayre family, with Ron Chaimowitz as co-founder and president. That same year the publisher saw the release of their first shareware title, the hugely popular Doom.[3] In its first year, revenue reached $10.3 million.[4] GT was unique among many publishers as they allowed developers they contracted to retain their Intellectual Property.

GT Interactive revenue soared 880% and reached $101 million in its second year of existence, with profits reaching $18 million.[5] GT Interactive's partnership with id Software scored another hit with Doom II: Hell on Earth, which was released in October and sold over 2 million copies.

In February GT Interactive obtained the publishing rights to games based on Mercer Mayer property, which included Little Critter and Little Monster.[6] GT Interactive began to set up displays at Kmart and Walmart for low cost software.[7]

GT Interactive signed an exclusive software supplier agreement with Walmart, that meant according to UBS Securities analyst Michael Wallace: "All software developers have to deal with GT if they want to sell in a Walmart."[4]

In December GT Interactive debuted on the NASDAQ stock exchange under the stock symbol GTIS.[8] Raising $140 million with its initial public offering, it was one of the biggest IPOs of the year, second only to Netscape's.[9]

GT Interactive offered 10 million shares to the public at $14 each.[9] During GT Interactive's IPO, Joseph Cayre sold more than 1.4 million shares, 9.2% of his shares, for a $20 million return.[9]

GT Interactive reported a strong revenue growth of 134% in the year to $234.4 million but, in the first sign of trouble ahead, profits increased a meager 23% to $22.6 million.[10]

In January GT Interactive obtained the publishing rights for the highly anticipated Quake from id Software.[11] In February GT Interactive and Target signed an agreement in which GT Interactive became the primary consumer software supplier to all Target's 675 stores.[12]

In June 1996 GT Interactive acquired WizardWorks, publisher of the Deer Hunter series, for 2.4 million shares and FormGen, which had the publishing rights to Duke Nukem, for 1 million shares,[8] or $17 million.[13]

Quake was also released in June by GT Interactive for PC. It sold 1.8 million copies,[3] becoming a PC classic.

In July, the game developer Humongous Entertainment was bought by GT Interactive for 3.5 million shares, or $76 million.[14] In 1995, Humongous Entertainment's revenue had risen to $10 million, an increase of 233% over 1994's revenue of $3 million.[14] The deal gave GT Interactive rights to successful children's software titles such as the Putt-Putt franchise as well as the Freddi Fish and Spy Fox series.

In November GT Interactive acquired Warner Interactive Europe (including Renegade Software) from Time Warner for $6.3 million in cash, with this acquisition GT Interactive gained bigger access to software markets in Western Europe.[8]

In a sign of uncertainty for its future, GT Interactive, for the year, reported a net income increase of only 11% over the previous year to $25.1 million. Revenue growth also decelerated to 56%, revenue for the year was $365 million. Making matters worse, net income in the fourth quarter reduced 16.8% to $8.5 million when compared to 1995's fourth quarter.[10]

In January GT Interactive bought One Stop, a European value software publisher, for $800,000 in cash.[8]

In June GT Interactive signed a deal with MTV, the deal gave GT Interactive the rights to publish games based on Beavis and Butt-head and Æon Flux.[15]

In October GT Interactive bought game developer SingleTrac for $14.7 million — $5.4 million in cash and $9.3 million in stock. SingleTrac owned and developed such games as Twisted Metal and Jet Moto.[16][17] In September game developer Cavedog Entertainment, a division of Humongous Entertainment, made its first release, Total Annihilation,[18] which sold more than 1 million copies.[10]

On October 5, 1997, GT Interactive announced that it had signed a definitive agreement to acquire MicroProse for $250 million in stock; the deal had even been unanimously approved by the Board of Directors of both companies and was expected to be completed by the end of that year.[19] The merger would have made GT Interactive the second largest U.S. gaming software company, exceeded only by Electronic Arts.[20]

But on December 5 the acquisition was cancelled, according to both CEOs "the time is simply not right" for the deal. MicroProse's stock plummeted after the announcement of the deal's cancellation.[21]

GT Interactive's result was negatively affected because, in March, they stopped being the exclusive computer software distributor to Walmart, who decided to buy its software directly from the publishers.[22]

In 1997 GT Interactive's share of the entertainment software market reached a historical low of 6.4% down from the record highs of 9% and 10% years earlier. GT Interactive was a leader only on the arcade/action category, with a 20.3% market share. Making matters worse, GT Interactive also had a high debt/equity ratio of 41%, Electronic Arts had a debt/equity ratio of just 8%. For 1997 GT Interactive's return on equity was a dismal -16.14%.[23] For the year, GT Interactive's revenue growth continued to decelerate, increased only 45% to $530 million.[24] During 1997 GT Interactive posted its first net loss, totaling $25 million.[10]

In May Epic Games's Unreal was published by GT Interactive, in the first 10 months over 800,000 copies were sold. Coincidentally Deer Hunter II, which was released in October also sold 800,000 copies.[10]

In November GT Interactive bought OneZero Media for $17.2 million in stock and $20 million in total, becoming the first game publisher to own an entertainment Internet website.[16][25]

Legend Entertainment was acquired for around $2 million,[16] while Reflections Interactive was acquired for 2.3 million shares or $13.5 million.[16] Both companies were bought in December of 1998.[26]

In the fourth quarter of 1998 GT Interactive posted a net income of $16.7 million on revenues of $246.3 million.[27] For the year, GT Interactive reported revenues were almost flat rising 10% to $584 million, but GT Interactive swung into black by posting a $20.3 million net income (results from the fiscal year ending on December 31, 1998).[10][27]

The year of 1999 brought bad news for GT Interactive's shareholders: GT Interactive posted first quarter losses of $90 million due to restructuring costs.[10] In February, in light of the bad results, CEO Ron Chaimowitz was replaced.[24]

Game sales in 1999 fell in comparison to 1998, which had dire consequences on GT Interactive's finances. In April, GT Interactive predicted for 2000 a first quarter loss of $55 million on revenues of around just $95 million. A failure to release 5 major games and a planned relocation to Los Angeles added to the losses. In June GT Interactive announced it had hired Bear Stearns to look into the possibility of either a merger or a sale of the company and in October GT Interactive fired 35% of its workforce, or 650 employees, mostly from its distribution section.[28]

In June, Reflections-developed Driver was released, selling approximately 1 million copies.[10] In July GT Interactive sold OneZero Media for $5.2 million in cash, just six months after it was purchased.[16]

On November 16, Infogrames Entertainment, SA (IESA) announced that it would buy 70% of GT Interactive for $135 million and assume $10.5 million in debt,[28] a deal completed by December 17.[29]

IESA's acquisition came just in time because GT Interactive's 1999 results were dismal. Revenues fell 30% to $408 million in 1999 and GT Interactive posted a net loss of $254 million for the year (results with the fiscal year ending on December 31, 1999).[27][30]

On May 10, 2000, IESA announced the renaming of GT Interactive to Infogrames, Inc.[31] Almost three years later, on May 8, 2003, the company would again change its name, this time to Atari, Inc., becoming ATAR on the NASDAQ stock market.[1]

Following the bankruptcy of Atari, the GT Interactive brand and trademark was soon sold to Tommo, Inc., and later Billionsoft.[32] On April 20, 2023, Atari announced they had re-acquired the GT Interactive brand and trademark from Billionsoft alongside select titles formerly published by the company.[33] Following this acquisition, Atari revived the brand as a publishing label for select archived titles outside of the Accolade catalogue that Tommo formerly published, such as the 2000 version of Gunship!.[34]