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)'"

Comments

Stupid.

[Whiney Mac Fanboy]

Article is speculation of the stupidist sort. Check this:

A Nintendo purchase could potentially let Apple bring the success enjoyed by the iPod to the Macintosh computer.

That is quite possibly the stupidest sentence I've ever read.

I certainly hope that Apple doesn't buy nintendo (even if they could) because the reason nintendo are great is because the concentrate on games, games, games. No failed computer / pda / music player / whatever for them. They just concentrate on what they're good at.

Any dillution of that fervour would be sad.

Re:Stupid.

[AKAImBatman]

Article is speculation of the stupidist sort.

Agreed. My first thought was, "Who let Dvorak out of his cage?"

While the white plastic designs of the current Nintendos and Macs may make them seem like a good match from a marketing perspective, this fellow's suggestions on technology integration show a distinct lack of understanding of the Game Console market.

Game Consoles are very good at what they do. They play games, and they support the graphics and sound of those games. Generally speaking, they are capable of providing a gaming experience far in excess of anything a general-purpose computer could do at a similar price point. The reason for this is the use of customized graphics, sound, and CPU hardware. Engineers who look at the specs of most game consoles tend to think, "but this would perform horribly under condition XYZ, which most computers see on a regular basis!" And they would, if they were made into general purpose computers. But they're not. They are focused gaming hardware.

Now the Mac Mini is NOT a piece of focused gaming hardware. All of its internals are all wrong. Its graphics performance would be slow, its bus bandwidth is poor, and its CPU is on a distinct bus from the GPU. Not a very good gaming machine.

Of course, all of this discussion is academic. Nintendo won't sell, and no vector exists for a hostile takeover. So it's a virtual certainty that Nintendo will not be bought off, even if Apple wanted to purchase them.

Re:Stupid.

[0biter]

"... great is because the concentrate on games, games, games."

Indeed. If Apple really wanted to get in on the "home digital appliance" market that MS and Sony are positioning to take over teh next 5-10 years, they would not do well by buying a self-identified "toy maker" like Nintendo. If anything, an Apple/Sony partnership would make more sense in this emerging sector since Sony has the hardware and penetration, and Apple has the software.

Nintendo selling?

[Durinthal]

so the idea of Nintendo being bought is not outlandish in itself

Yeah it is. You think that a Japanese company with that much tradition would sell out at all, much less to an American company?

Wha?

[MachineShedFred]

Apple's successes lean heavily on not straying too far from their core market competencies - useable devices that people want.

Gaming has *never* been one of Apple's core competencies, and Apple has a knack for changing things around when they buy something.

The only way that a merger with Nintendo would work, is if they leave Nintendo the hell alone - and that won't happen.

Re:Wha?

[Whiney Mac Fanboy]

Apple's successes lean heavily on not straying too far from their core market competencies - useable devices that people want.

Nonsense - in 2000, I would have said:

Apple's successes lean heavily on not straying too far from their core market competencies - PCs.

But I would have been wrong, because inspite of the failure of the pippin & newton, Apple's wildest success was going out & making a music player - completely outside their core market.

Difference between that & buying nintendo however, is that:

1) Apple did that on their own.
2) They expanded into a new, emerging market (like the newton should have).

Apple should continue to look to new markets, rather then try to get in to an already overcrowded market using a brute-force approach (like one of their O/S competitors).

Smells of straight up stock manipulation

[martinbogo]

What is -with- all these merger suggestions? "Company X should by company Y!" It smells to high heaven of stock manipulation by the article writers. I bet, with disclosure, that each time one of these articles is published, that the author has some sort of vested financial interest in one or both of the companies.

So it's *Apple* now. Well, that makes a difference

[barawn]

This sounds familiar.

What is it people in the tech industry don't understand about Nintendo?

Nintendo is a 117 year old company. The analogy I used last time when someone mentioned Microsoft is still apt - this is the equivalent of a 15 year old kid coming over and saying "here's $500, can I buy your house?"

For 113 years of its life, Nintendo was a family owned business. It only passed the reigns on to someone not in the Yamauchi family when Hiroshi Yamauchi named Satoru Iwata his successor, and it's not like the Yamauchi family just up and sold all of their shares.

You can't buy a company if they're not willing to sell the shares.

Don't forget the Steve Jobs/Disney&ABC connect

[metoc]

Rumours are fun.

Remember that Steve Jobs is a majority shareholder in Disney. This means access to content!! Remember that Apple is a 'serious computer company' and is not interested in games. Buying Nintendo would allow it to access to a less serious market without diluting the Apple brand. Lets not forget the iPod & ITMS. Imagine being able to connect your iPod to your Wii console, or playing videos (and photo slideshows) on your Wii. Best wait until WWDC and see if a PVR capability becomes available on Macs.

Personally Apple should buy Sun (or vis-versa). Sun has a lot to offer, but needs someone like Jobs to give it a will to live and produce some interesting products with all that technology they have.

And how.

[cryptochrome]

I think anyone that has ever submitted a perfectly good verifiable story here only to see it rejected within minutes must be pulling their hair out when they see incredibly idle speculative obvious bullshit like this on the front page.

And they wonder how digg grew so fast...