Corporate dramas don't interest Nathaniel Dennett, a 10-year-old student at Paris' Ecole de la Motte Picquet. He couldn't care less that shares in Europe's largest video-game maker, Infogrames Entertainment, have tripled since early March. As for the revelation on May 8 that Infogrames is changing its name to that of video-game pioneer Atari Inc.? Yawn. The game-loving garçon has never heard of Atari, which had its heyday in the 1980s. But ask him about Infogrames' highly anticipated new title, Enter the Matrix, which shipped a record 4 million copies before its May 15 release, and his eyes light up. "I love the Matrix movie," he says. "The game sounds really cool."

That's music to the ears of troubled Infogrames. Headquartered in picturesque Lyons, Infogrames has been on a ride more death-defying than anything gamers could conjure up in its popular simulation title, Roller Coaster Tycoon. Founded in 1983 on a $10,000 investment by French entrepreneurs Bruno Bonnell and Christophe Sapet, Infogrames took off after a public offering in 1993, increasing sales 30-fold in the next seven years, to more than $510 million. When its stock peaked in March, 2000, Infogrames had a market capitalization of $4.1 billion. Charismatic Chief Executive Bonnell, with his trademark T-shirts and shaved head, became known as "the Bill Gates of France."

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