Namco Bandai and French publisher Infogrames announced a strategic partnership that will see the two companies cooperating on distribution of their titles in Europe and Asia – and they'll offer the same services for other third party publishers. Infogrames, parent company of Atari, agreed to regroup its distribution operations into a standalone entity that will have exclusive distribution rights for all of Namco Bandai and Infogrames’ products in Europe and Asia. Namco Bandai has acquired a 34 percent stake in the new business, with Infogrames retaining the rest. Namco Bandai has never operated more than a token presence in Europe, with its titles published by a variety of first and third-party publishers including Sony, Nintendo, Atari, Ubisoft and Electronic Arts. The new company is expected to increase the revenues and profitability of Infogrames’ distribution operations by establishing distribution contracts with multiple, but so far unnamed, publishers. The new business is valued at €95 million, and is expected to be up and running before the end of February 2009. "I am delighted that this transaction strengthens our outstanding partnership with Namco Bandai, one of the industry’s greatest creators and publishers of video games, and is a significant development in Infogrames’ reinvention," says David Gardner, CEO of Infogrames. "The agreement will give Infogrames a guaranteed and strengthened product portfolio and provide us additional means to invest in new product development for packaged and online markets."