Mario and the investors disagree on the way forward

While diligently following the progress of Satoru Iwata's Investor Briefing, we were keeping track of a Wall Street Journal live blog that observed that, as the presentation progressed, the Tokyo exchange wasn't exactly giddy at what was being said, with the share price falling. It seems like that's played out, with Nintendo Co. shares closing the day with a drop in Tokyo Trading.

As reported by Bloomberg, the close of the Tokyo exchange brought a drop of 4.3% (to 12,325 yen) following Satoru Iwata's various announcements yesterday. These included announcements of increased GamePad focus, a dedicated smart device service development team, and a new "Quality of Life" product to be announced this year, along with other strategic plans. The briefing did ignore various calls for full games on smart devices, for example, and Nintendo has chosen to stand by its core hardware and software model along with evolutions in its business practices.

Here's an example of investor feedback as provided by Bloomberg, in this case Takashi Aoki, a Tokyo-based fund manager at Mizuho Asset Management Co.

I don’t see any path to an earnings recovery in the short term. The business plan was as I expected. I didn’t foresee any drastic changes.

The chart below shows that the drop isn't a particularly sharp decline — beyond that of earlier this month — but more reflective of Iwata-san's announcements not inspiring investors.

Screenshot 2014 01 30 at 16. 24. 32

Nintendo's share price, in general, is hovering at levels along the lines of what they were for much of 2013, though the company will naturally wish to begin a climb to past glories in 2014 and beyond.

So investors didn't embrace Nintendo's strategies with glee; if that changes in the next day or so we'll post an update.

[source bloomberg.com]