French video game developer and distributor Ubi Soft Entertainment is to acquire Tom Clancy's Red Storm Entertainment - which develops video games adapted from the US author's novels - for a reported $45m.

Red Storm, which is based in Morrisville, North Carolina, registered revenues of $52m in 1999.

Ubi Soft, a leader in the video game sector in France along with Infograme Entertainment and Cryo Interactive, already has 16 foreign subsidiaries in 50 countries including the US.

The company has recently been signed up by Disney Interactive to produce a game adapted from 3D animated feature Dinosaur, and by Luc Besson to develop a game based on French chart topper Taxi 2.

Ubi Soft also distributes third-party games such as Lucas Arts' Indiana Jones And The Phantom Menace.