Everything about Atari Corporation totally explained
Atari Corporation was a manufacturer of computers and video game consoles from 1984-1996. Atari Corp. was founded in July 1984, Warner sold the home computing and game console divisions of Atari to
Jack Tramiel, the then recently ousted founder of Atari competitor Commodore International, under the name Atari Corporation for $240 million in stocks under the new company.
History
Under Tramiel's ownership,
Atari Corp. used the remaining stock of game console inventory to keep the company afloat while they finished development of their 16-bit computer system, the
Atari ST. In 1985, they released their update to the 8-bit computer line, the Atari XE series, as well as the 16-bit
Atari ST line. Then, in 1986, Atari Corp. launched two consoles designed under the Warner Atari - Atari 2600jr and the
Atari 7800 console (which saw limited release in 1984). Atari Corp. rebounded, producing a $25 million profit that year. The Atari ST line proved very successful (but mostly in Europe, not the U.S.), ultimately selling more than 4 million units. It was especially popular among musicians, as it had built in
MIDI ports. Still, its closest competitor in the marketplace, the
Commodore Amiga, outsold it 3 to 2. Atari eventually released a line of inexpensive
IBM PC compatibles as well as an MS-DOS compatible palm computer called the Atari Portfolio.
In 1989, Atari Corp. also released the
Atari Lynx, a handheld console with color graphics, to critical acclaim. However, a shortage of parts kept the system from being released nationwide for the 1989 Christmas season. As a result, the Lynx lost market share to Nintendo's
Game Boy, which had only a black and white display but was widely available. Also in 1989, Atari Corp. sued Nintendo for $250 million, alleging it had an illegal monopoly. Atari lost.
As the fortunes of Atari Corporation's ST and PC compatible computers faded, consoles and software again became the company's main focus. In 1993, Atari Corp. released its last console, the
Atari Jaguar. After a period of initial success, it, too, failed to meet expectations. It wasn't nearly as powerful as
Sony Computer Entertainment's PlayStation or
Sega's Saturn and lacked the extensive third party support its Japanese competitors had easily secured for their consoles.
Atari Corp.'s reverse merger with JT Storage Inc.
By 1996, a series of successful lawsuits followed by profitable investments had left Atari with millions of dollars in the bank, but the failure of the Lynx and Jaguar left Atari without any products to sell. In addition, Tramiel and his family wanted out. The result was a rapid succession of changes in ownership. In July 1996, Atari merged with
JTS Inc.,a short-lived maker of hard disk drives, to form JTS Corp. Atari's role in the new company largely became a holder for the Atari properties and minor support, consequently the name largely disappeared from the market.
In March 1998, JTS sold the Atari name and assets to Hasbro Interactive for $5 million—less than a fifth of what Warner Communications had paid 22 years earlier. This transaction primarily involved the
brand and
intellectual property, which now fell under the Atari Interactive division of Hasbro Interactive. The brand name changed hands again in December 2000, when French software publisher
Infogrames took over
Hasbro Interactive.
Major products
Further Information
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