Atari, Wade Rosen and Irata LLC, led by the latter, announced on Monday an agreement for the filing by Irata LLC of a draft public tender offer targeting Atari shares at a unit price of 0.19 euro. Atari’s Board of Directors unanimously welcomed the proposed transaction, ” which would support the group’s strategy “, explains the company in its press release.
The offer would also allow Atari shareholders who so wish to obtain immediate liquidity with a premium on the share price, comments the management. A premium, of course, of 46% compared to the last quoted price of 13 cents on Friday evening, but which should not make us forget that the title has fallen by around 60%, since the start of the year as on 3 and 5 year. Wade Rozen holds 21.37% of the capital, but the free float is high, more than 75%. At the end of the Offer, Irata, the company he manages, does not intend to request the implementation of a squeeze-out targeting Atari shares or delisting.
Nearly 24 million euros in losses
The board has set up a committee ad hoc composed mainly of independent members who will supervise the work of the independent expert and will formulate his recommendations concerning the offer after an in-depth examination of its terms and conditions, with a view to the submission by the Board of Directors of a reasoned opinion, indicates Atari again in its press release. Wade Rosen will not participate in the work of this committee ad hoc and will abstain from taking part in the decisions of the board of directors and from taking any measures on behalf of Atari in relation to this operation.
At the end of July, Atari published its annual results, ending March 31, which showed a loss of 23.8 million euros, against a deficit of 11.9 million a year earlier, at from a turnover of 14.9 million, down sharply compared to the 14.9 million euros for the 2020-2021 financial year. If the activity had been driven by the nascent contribution of the blockchain, for nearly 5 million euros, that of games was reduced by 30% while representing 38% of the total, when that of licenses fell to 1 .3 million (8% of consolidated revenues), against 7.9 million a year earlier.
No more splitting the blockchain
As far as the group’s strategy is concerned, Atari aims ” a return to the roots [de la société] in game development and publishing, with a dynamic pipeline of new premium game releases, drawing on a large catalog of intellectual property; the design of innovative and quality systems in hardware, partnerships with international brands in the field of licenses, in the historical world of Atari games and beyond, finally the development of the Atari ecosystem in Web3, including in particular a new proprietary token, blockchain games, own NFT projects, content and partnerships with leading players in the Web3 universe. »
In the normal course of its activities, Atari is in continuous negotiation with a view to acquiring or concluding license agreements to acquire retro games, the group indicates in its press release. On the other hand, there is no longer any question of suspending the Blockchain division’s spin-off project announced in 2021.