During Nintendo’s recent Shareholder Q&A, company president Shuntaro Furukawa was asked what the video game giant would do in the event of a "hostile takeover" if another company wanted its intellectual property.
Furukawa responded by explaining how Nintendo had not adopted any "anti-takeover" measures, but if anything did happen, it had the necessary systems in place to counter it:
We have not adopted what are generally called anti-takeover measures. However, in the case that we face a hostile takeover that would damage the value of the company or the common interest of the company's shareholders, we do have systems in place, both within the company and in connection with outside experts for such an occurrence, to take all legal and appropriate steps against it even if we have not proactively put preventive measures in place.
He finished up by saying the company would continue to consider how it would respond to such a scenario in the future:
Going forward, we will continue to investigate how we would respond to a hostile takeover.
Nintendo provided a similar response to this question during a Q+A session in March.
What are your thoughts about this? Tell us down below.
[source nintendo.co.jp]
Comments 54
....They weren't allowed to keep the Regginator?
Nintendo is a publicly listed company, so I don’t know what they’re expected to do in the case of a hostile takeover - same as any listed company?!?
@Bondi_Surfer they got contingency plans in place incase that happens.
Maybe in the Wii U days this was something to worry about but in the Switch era? Nintendo is printing money! Others should be worried about being taken over by them!
@RiasGremory But you can't have a contingency plan for something out of your control. There are seven banks who own almost a third of Nintendo shares between them. If they all decide to sell (along with plenty of minority shareholders), there’s nothing Nintendo can do.
I doubt it’ll happen, but saying you have a contingency plan is garbage.
Interessting read, tnx for sharing
I read this article like 5 times already. Old story.
@DenDen this isn't ign lol
Why asked such a question all of a sudden? Is there a threat recently?
Maybe Hollywood wants to buy Nintendo's 30% shares of Pokemon?
they have bowser to take them out
I don’t think putting the princess in another castle qualifies as a contingency plan for Doug Bowser going rogue and buying up stock options. Just sayin.
I'd investigate the one along questions. At least I would of someone asked: `what measures are in place in case some hypothetical person would want to break in through you're back door?`
Maybe this is why Nintendo started to back away from Disney. I mean they not only back out of Wreck it Ralph 2, but they also ditched them to have the Mario movie made by Illumination when we all know Disney would have killed to do it. I think Nintendo knows how manipulative Disney can be, and knows it's best not to give them any chance of owning rights to their IP's.
They have plans in case someone wants to make a hostile takeover to make them release Mother 3.
@Majora101 Yes, it is. I've added this in.
@Bondi_Surfer Of course there is something Nintendo can do: buy. This is how Ubisoft saved its ass, when almost everyone thought they wouldn't manage to survive the hostile takeover attempt by Vivendi. Not even Ubisoft itself. Remember how they were basically saying Goodbye at E3 2017 (? I think)?
By dividing up 51% of the stock and hiding it in a series of different castles?
I feel like this is a repeat of an article from last year.
Hostile Company for Smash confirmed!
How does a hostile takeover work exactly?
I am pretty sure that involves having the Japanese government come in and stop the deal from happening. Nintendo is pretty much a national treasure for the country.
Though if Nintendo has a takeover plan for the Pokémon Co./ GameFreak/ Creatures, now would be a pretty good time to takeover them.
Am I the only one who read "hostage takeover" first?
Didn't you already cover this story? I swear I remember reading this before.
Sony entered on the consoles market with the main purpose to kill Nintendo and eat them. 25 years later the japanese industry has collapsed except Nintendo. Well done Sony...
@patbacknitro18 I was chatting with a friend of mine yesterday about Disney owning pretty much everything these days and he said he was surprised they hadn't tried to buy Nintendo. Suddenly it makes sense, like you say, why Illumination got the Super Mario movie gig...
@Shinnos I wouldn't mind seeing Mario theme in Disneyland. It would sell even more tickets. But hush don't give them any ideas. Spies everywhere. LMAO
Hostile takeover plan: TOP SECRET:
Take shares owned. Buy more using liquid assets. Hope you control enough shares to keep company. SHHHHHHH DON'T TELL ANYONE
Of course that does not include a non hostile take over.
@Alucard83. Mario is in Universal.
@zool the more reason to go Disney
Disney and Google have clearly shown they aren't ready for Prime time.
They have very competent Ninjas. You know it , we know it, everyone knows it
@patbacknitro18
Its not bad logic as I wouldn’t trust Disney at all after what they have done with Lucas Arts and Star Wars games. I have hope for the upcoming mega game, but its a crime that great games like KOTOR don’t get new iterations. It was beyond reason to me that given the massive success of the Wii it never got a Light Saber fighter using motion controls.
This sounds like one of those plans to survive nuclear war by whitewashing your windows and putting your door up against the living room wall
@glaemay
Sony have done alright themselves, to be fair....
Now that they are in bed with Tencent, they better watch out. A hostile takeover attempt is a real possibility.
@Alpha008 Lots of people have stocks in Nintendo. If the stocks are distributed like this:
Nintendo themselves own 20 %
Person A owns 20 %
An index fund owns 20 %
Then you would start by attempting to buy as much new stock as you can, let's say you get 20 % (a new stock is basically a loan that you give Nintendo) before they (Nintendo) notices and refuse to sell more. Then you contact Person a and the index fund to buy theirs (usually they know what is going on at this point, and will only sell them above what they are worth). A this point you have 60 % of the shares of Nintendo and can fire anyone you want and hire new people (usually after a hostile takeover the management gets replaced to people who are loyal to the company that does the takeover).
@Bondi_Surfer Nintendo has been around since 1889 so yes they probably do have contingency plans in place for any attempt from anyone that would try to take over.
I'd love Microsoft to buy Nintendo just to watch this thread lose its collective minds.
Correct me if I am wrong, but isn't there a Japanese law stating the a foreign company cannot own a controlling stake in a Japanese company? If that is the case, then there would never be a worry of anybody outside of Japan trying to buy Nintendo, but rather somebody from within.
The answer doesn't seem to tell you much...
The answer doesn't really explain anything. I suppose they're not really going to give out actual detailed plans now are they.
@Majora101
This was probably on a list of "stuff to write about when there is nothing new" and the first person who used it forgot to remove it from the list.
Erm, this is basically an invitation for someone to try.
A hostile takeover @Alpha008 is when a company or very rich person tries to buy 51% of a company's stock when the company being bought doesn't wish for someone to do this. To own the right to make decisions for a company majority rules. So you need to own 51% of the company's stock making you the majority. AKA you own more of the company than every other shareholder put together. So what the other shareholders want doesn't matter because you own more of the company than them.
Than maybe true @SilentS. But that law means nothing to Nintendo if someone like Sony trys to buy them as their a Japanese Company. And to be honest who but Sony would try to but them?
I'd like to think it's with missiles hidden in that roof.
Nintendo being under the control of the kind of person and/or corporate entity that would pursue a hostile takeover would be the death of the company. Nintendo isn't perfect, but marching to the beat of their own drum, as opposed to constantly pursuing the bottom line like their rivals, is the main reason that they have survived for over 3 decades in the gaming industry. I'm not saying they don't make decisions in the name of profit, but it's not the only motivation driving their executives. This is the same company whose board of executives took a 50% pay cut when the 3DS price drop happened.
Is this really worth reporting?
You mean the fire bars and lava pits wouldn't be enough to stop them?
@MarkieMAN64 That's probably part of their plan..
@Alpha008 References include the Gulf War and Gulf War 2...
I'm watching the finale of Succession season 1 and I remembered this topic hahaha 😄
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