14 DAY TRIAL // Infogrames, the parent company of Atari, is forming a new distribution division, which is to be called Distribution Partners for now, and has named Jackie Fromion, a veteran of the videogames industry who worked within Electronic Arts, as the head of the new entity.
Jackie Fromion headed the European operations of Yoplait, a dairy products manufacturer, before moving to Electronic Arts, where he managed operations in France and Southern Europe, before having managed the Label Brand Development for the Sims franchise.
Distribution Partners will be a joint venture between Namco Bandai and Infogrames, under an agreement concluded in September. Namco Bandai is set to have a 34% stake in the new company and the entity will have exclusive rights to distribute Namco Bandai and Infogrames made games in Europe and Asia. Infogrames titles are distributed under the Atari brand in the United States.
Distribution Partners is expected to become operational in February 2009 and its value is thought to be around 133 million dollars. Infogrames hopes that it will increase both revenue and profitability on the games it distributes.
David Gardner, the Chief Executive Officer of Infogrames and also an ex employee of Electronic Arts, stated that “I am very pleased to welcome Jackie. As head of the new distribution company, he will bring his dynamism, professionalism and experience to help us to grow the business and develop the strategy.”
Atari has been a pretty active company lately. It announced a Wii music title supposed to take on Wii Music from Nintendo, while presenting a distribution agreement related to Sam & Max. Various sources within the company also say that new games under the Baldur's Gate and Icewind Dale names might be created, while the publisher bought MMO developer Mythic Entertainment.