GT Interactive Software
Logo of Atari, Inc. since 2012
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| Subsidiary of Atari, SA | |
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| Industry | Interactive entertainment |
| Founded | February 1993 (as GT Interactive Software) |
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| Headquarters | New York City, New York, United States |
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Key people
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Number of employees
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10 (2014) |
| Parent | Atari, SA |
| Website | www |
Atari, Inc. was founded in 1993 as GT Interactive Software Corp. In 1999, Infogrames Entertainment, SA acquired a controlling interest in GT Interactive, renaming it Infogrames, Inc. As part of Infogrames Entertainment's company-wide re-branding in May 2003, Infogrames, Inc. finally became known as Atari, Inc. On October 11, 2008, Infogrames completed its acquisition of Atari, Inc., making it a wholly owned subsidiary. On January 21, 2013, Atari, Inc. filed for bankruptcy, with President Jim Wilson stating plans to try and split off from parent Atari, SA.
The GT Interactive Software Corporation (GTI) 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. In its first year, revenue reached $10.3 million.
GT Interactive revenue soared 880% and reached $101 million in its second year of existence, with profits reaching $18 million. 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 GTI obtained the publishing rights to games based on Mercer Mayer property, which included Little Critter and Little Monster. GT Interactive began to set up displays at Kmart and Walmart for low cost software.
GTI 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."
In December GT Interactive Software debuted on the NASDAQ stock exchange under the stock symbol GTIS. Raising $140 million with its initial public offering, it was one of the biggest IPOs of the year, second only to Netscape's.
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Wikipedia