Atari Ready to Axe 80 Jobs

Atari has announced plans to reduce staff levels by 20 per cent in order to control costs and appease creditors. This decision could see up to 80 jobs being lost worldwide.

Atari CEO Bruno Bonnell has described this as "decisive action" required by the weak financial results for the fiscal quarter ended in January 2006. Consequently, Atari's credit line from HSBC had been cut off due to failure to meet certain financial obligations to the bank.

The publisher has now confirmed that it will be cutting 20 per cent of it workforce, which currently numbers around 400 worldwide - of whom roughly 250 are in the United States - but no information has been released about when the cuts will happen, or whether specific parts of the firm will be targeted.

The publisher has already closed facilities in California (Santa Monica) and Massachusetts (Beverly) in early 2005, and has sold off its majority share in Humongous Software to parent company Infogrames last autumn.