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Rumormongering - Apple Could Buy Nintendo?
An anonymous reader writes "CNET wonders if 'Apple is about to frag the gaming community with a revelation that could shake Microsoft to its core: Apple will buy Nintendo. What could be more quintessentially left-field Apple behaviour than buying out the U.S.'s number three games console manufacturer?' The article goes on to compare the companies, saying 'both have followings whose brand dedication verges on the religiously devout' and design styles that are so similar that 'the Nintendo DS Lite practically looks like Jonathan Ive built it.' The writer says an Apple and Nintendo merger will 'penetrate the mainstream consumer market with Macintosh computers'. The possible outcome of a merger would be a console based around the Mac Mini. As for whether Apple have the cash to pull it off: 'Cisco was rumoured to be looking at a purchase of Nintendo earlier in the year, so the idea of Nintendo being bought is not outlandish in itself. Apple's market cap is $51.7bn (Nintendo's is $23.1bn)'"
i wish you could mod articles down... but you cant... so these kinds of stupid articles reach the front page of slashdot. i am getting more and more tired of stuipd articles showing up on the front page... anyone else agree?
Is stuff like this news? If so, I could go blog about how Disney could buy McDonalds, or how Toyota plans on purchasing Vivid Video.
Even if this were a serious issue, which it isn't, I somehow don't see Japan's pride and joy Nintendo selling to an American company for anything, even if it is Apple.
Slashdot Burying Stories About Slashdot Media Owned
Nintendo is a privately held company. One of the largest in fact.
From the first line of Nintendo's Wikipedia entry:
Nintendo (Japanese: , Nintend; NASDAQ: NTDOY, TYO: 7974 ) is a multinational corporation
They are on both the Nasdaq and the Tokyo Stock Exchange.
Also, from the corporate information sidebar on the same page:
Nintendo Company, Limited
Nintendo Logo
Type Public (NASDAQ: NTDOY)
Founded November 6, 1889
So, yes... you are incorrect.
In about a year .. when DS Lite and Wii have had a chance to penetrate the market Nintendo may buy Apple ... at least CNET will tell us so.
That would honestly make more sense. Have we all (or at least C-Net) forgotten this?
Nintendo is for all intents and purposes a privately owned company. If Yamauchi says they're not for sale, they're not for sale. (Yamauchi stepped down only as CEO - he is still majority shareholder.) And we all know him - he's not about to sell out the company for a merger that doesn't help Nintendo in the least.
A hostile takeover of Apple by Nintendo, though, is unlikely but theoretically possible.
Funny you should say that considering how much better the iPod is doing in
Japan than any of its Japanese-manufactured competitors.
*sigh* back to work...
He's the single largest (minority) Disney shareholder after the Pixar buyout not the majority shareholder -- that's a really big difference.