Midway to open French subsidiary

US publisher Midway has announced that it is to open a new French subsidiary, Midway Games SAS, which will have offices in Paris and will oversee all of the company's sales and marketing in France.

Headed up by former Activision sales director Antoine Seux, the new office is the third regional office to be opened by Midway in Europe, with a German sales office having joined the firm's UK operation in early 2005.

The move reflects Midway's desire to move more strongly into Europe, a territory in which the publisher has traditionally been under-represented - and the timing of the opening of the office may be particularly telling, since it comes only weeks after UK publisher SCi confirmed that it was no longer in takeover talks with the unnamed suitor, widely believed to be Midway, which had approached it late last year.

"Growth and expansion in the European territories continues to be a major initiative for Midway," confirmed Midway CEO David Zucker, "and we believe this move establishes Midway as a force in the European territory."

Midway's aggressive expansion has come in the wake of a major change to the company's ownership over a year ago, when Viacom chairman Sumner Redstone rapidly acquired stock in the firm to become a majority shareholder, owning around 80 per cent of Midway's shares at one point.