Pizza Time Theatre Files To Reorganize

 

Pizza Time Theatre Inc., one of the most visible creations of video game wizard Nolan Bushnell, has filed for reorganization under Chapter 11 of the Federal Bankruptcy Code.

The company, which operates pizza restaurants that feature video games, received a healthy injection of Bushnell's capital and ingenuity, and its sales growth took it to #17 on the 1984 INC. 100 list of the fastest-growing public companies in America before the bankruptcy.

"One of the things that Pizza Time has shown me is that I can't be half-involved in something," Bushnell said in a recent interview. "I moved too far away."

Fortunately, Bushnell hadn't put all his eggs in one basket. He spends much of his time now at Catalyst Technologies, a company that serves as an incubator for his several start-up companies. Catalyst has recently added four new ventures: Etak Inc., which makes an automobile navigation device; By Video Inc., which makes a video-displayed products catalog to be installed in retail stores; I'Ro, which produces electronic devices that perform cosmetics analyses; and Vistar Productions Inc., which has a contract with NBC to produce a pilot television program called "Homemade," a compilation of homemade videos from around the country.

For now, Bushnell says he wants "to stay as far a way from Pizza Time as I can."