Once the Tramiel family
purchased Atari Inc. they set about re-structuring the entire
organisation. This
included closing the Atari European HQ in County Limerick, Ireland, where 250 people
worked (this was done just before Christmas!). In fact, thousands lost their jobs as
Jack and family reorganised their company for the launch of a new line
of computer systems. Atari employed over 10,000
people in early 1984, it would have only 1,750 employees
in 1985.
As part of the deal,
Jack Tramiel broke Atari into two entities. Jack didn't want the Arcade Division of
Atari (the part that was actually in profit!) as this wasn't part of his future plans with
the new company.
Warner kept the Arcade division (later selling it to Midway Games
Inc., and this year, Atari Games was officially closed as subsidiary) and the rest went to the
Tramiels'.
AtariTel was kept by Warner Communications
and later sold.
In retrospect, the
Arcade division would have been better kept as part of Jack's new Atari, not only because it was making money, but it would serve as a direct line for Arcade game conversions for
it's own video consoles; it would have been especially helpful for the Jaguar launch which
would take place almost 10 years later - but that's another story!
The rise and fall would
continue, but it was now called Atari Corp. |