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Atari sells www.games.com

For more than a million dollars, no less.

Atari has agreed to sell the www.games.com domain name and a number of digital board game licenses to Games, Inc. in exchange for $1,125,000 (€900,000) in cash and stock. The deal is due to close on or about March 31st upon Atari's redemption of its preferred stock.

Games, Inc. plans to quickly upgrade features and security at www.games.com so that it can relaunch in spring incorporating various licensed board games and classic Atari software in a tournament structure. Amongst the licenses acquired by Games, Inc. were Monopoly, Scrabble, Risk, Battleship, Boggle and Yahtzee.

CEO and chairman Roger Ach is excited at the potential of the www.games.com domain for a company which already runs state-sponsored lotteries and digital greetings services, and operates sites including www.lottery.com and www.cards.com. "We... believe www.games.com will become a very significant URL in the market for skill-based tournament play," he said in a statement on Thursday.