The Yamauchi No 10 Family Office, a group formed of members of Nintendo's founding family, is looking to buy out marine engineering company Toyo Construction, with the stated aim of helping to make the oceans cleaner, the Financial Times reports (paywall).
The Yamauchi family, who owns and recently renovated Nintendo's original HQ as a boutique hotel, put up an offer to buy the 93-year-old engineering firm back in April. It already has a 27% stake in Toyo Construction, but this offer seeks to buy the company outright and use it to "tackle profound global challenges", chief investment officer Hirowaka Murakami says.
Hiroshi Yamauchi, great-grandson of Nintendo's founder, was Nintendo's longest-sitting president and one of Japan's wealthiest individuals thanks to the company's success both while he was there and afterwards as Nintendo's largest shareholder. His grandson, Banjo Yamauchi (namesake of Rare's famous bird-carrying bear), formed the Family Office in 2020.
The Yamauchi Family Office uses its investment returns to finance start-ups and fund organisations working for charitable causes, such as cleaning up the planet (Astroscale) or making more sustainable products (Nature's Fynd), with the stated intention of creating "value" through philanthropic investment.
Murakami says that they see potential in the maritime engineering company's technology to help keep the ocean more sustainable. Toyo Construction has since tried to sell itself to a rival at a much lower price in an attempt to block the takeover. The Yamauchi Office, which is offering to buy Toyo at ¥1,000 per share, insists that it wants to reach a deal through dialogue, as opposed to a hostile takeover. Back in June, Toyo Construction abandoned a shareholder vote on whether or not it wanted to block the buyout again.
On the Yamauchi No 10 Family Office's rather fancy, colourful website, the company states that it is "constantly looking for new meaning in our assets", and that it will use its investments to "drive innovation in Japan".
Any thoughts on this potential buyout? Or are you just leaving the Yamauchi website on in the background to listen to that catchy arcade-style music? Let us know what you'd do if you had a whole bunch of Nintendo money below.
- Further reading: Feature: The Most Important People In Nintendo History
[source ft.com]
Comments 14
Cool, hope they really have good intentions and aren’t just trying to empty the ocean of all sea life. 😅
That is one heck of a corporate website 😂
Will this be replacing the Kawasaki branding in NSO's version of Wave Race 64?
So... they're with Team Aqua on the issue of the balance of water amount?
This is how real-life Splatoon starts
That is one of the best websites I've ever seen in my life, my god
I hope they can clear the ocean of "icky, paint-like goop."
DUDE THAT WEBSITE IS AWESOME
Pro tips;
Go to that website
listen to your preferred EDM
move your mouse over the No. 10 button during your faster beats
profit with joy
I guess you could say they're looking to get it on the..... Cheap Cheap?
Painfully unfunny jokes aside, I'm sticking on Puzzle Plank Galaxy from SMG2 for that site because wow does it fit surprisingly well.
I will start talking if the Yamauchi family becomes a stakeholder of Sony.
Wave race incoming.
That is the best website I have ever seen.
They get it for decades I've been saying its the oceans not that space rubbish.
Good read thank you
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