Officials from veteran French publisher Infogrames, the parent company of U.S. publisher Atari, have announced that founder Bruno Bonnell has left the company, to be replaced by newcomer Patrick Leleu as chairman and CEO.
According to an Infogrames press statement, Bonnell will cut all ties with the company, leaving his positions as chairman, CEO and director of Infogrames Entertainment, as well as all of his other positions within Atari and the Infogrames group of companies.
The last few years have been unusually difficult for Infogrames, with the company being forced to sell off many of its core brands and internal developers in order to stay solvent.
However, the company has recently instigated a
global debt restricting plan aimed at redeveloping its business. It is the completion of this plan which has prompted the departure of Bonnell.
Bonnell stated: “It is with understandable emotions, but also reassured about its future, that I leave Infogrames after 24 years spent to build this group with the support of all its teams. Together, we have been able to show its strength and capacity to innovate, even in the worst situations.”
“The time for business developers has logically come, after the entrepreneurial period. It's now time for Infogrames to conquer and progress on a market as promising as interactive entertainment business", he added.
New CEO Leleu was previous the CEO of mobile phone company Bouygues Telecom, between 1994 and 2001, and CEO of cable network operator Noos between 2001 and 2005.
Leleu commented: "I am convinced that Infogrames holds the assets, talents and teams to get back into the industrial competition and recover its dynamics of growth".
