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.

[Umbral Blot]

Yes, you have to wonder: was this article secretely written by Dvorak?

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.

Re:Stupid.

[Alzheimers]

It just wouldn't make sense unless they had some mutually envisioned killer app sitting in the wings.

Intendo -- using the Itunes system for buying and playing old games on the new console. It would totally "revolutionize" the online distibution and billing systems for consoles in a heartbeat. If the retro emulation's one of the main focii of the Wii, it'd be the obvious solution.

Re:Stupid.

[badasscat]

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.

Re:Stupid.

[nanojath]

I certainly hope that Apple doesn't buy nintendo (even if they could )

Yeah, there's a real question. Apple's apparently worth around 72 billion, Nintendo I had a bit harder time finding a figure (and wildly disparate "guesses" online - from 6 to 30 billion). I use the data in this article to guesstimate around 14 billion. Notable from that article is that as of a year ago Nintendo was the opposite of courting takeover. Suffice to say, Apple could probably afford it. It would not be a trivial expenditure. Nintendo would likely resist it. Whether Apple could actually manage a hostile takeover is questionable. It sounds like blue sky bunkum to me. (But guaranteed to generate just this sort of chatter, hmm...)

Re:Stupid.

[joshsisk]

but Nintendo has gone to the "Mario" well a bit too much lately and the poor sales of the cube shows it.

Check the Japanese sales charts. In the last two weeks, New Mario Brothers for the DS has sold ~1,000,000, one of the (if not THE) fastest selling games ever. The demand for (good) games with Nintendo characters is there. Look at the Best Buy and Amazon.com US sales ranks for some more evidence... (NMB is currently the top selling console game on Amazon.com, and #2 at Best Buy).

Mario's (and other Nintendo properties) over- or under- exposure isn't what hurt the gamecube. The console is neck and neck with the Xbox 1 for global sales (it vastly outsells it in Japan), and that is primarily based on Nintendo 1st party games (Mario, Zelda, etc). What hurt the cube was a lack of any games BUT the Nintendo games (with a few exceptions like RE4. People that love Nintendo games bought the cube. But to compete with the PS2, they needed people who like GTA, Tekken, Elder Scrolls, etc... That's where they failed with the cube.

As far as them exiting the hardware business, they have already stated they will not do that. And why would they? They came out of the last generation with tons of profits - both on the cube and the GBA. Again, the Cube is worldwide neck and neck with the Xbox - and they made a profit on every console sold, unlike MS. If they only do just as well this time, they will still be making profit (and it looks like they might do a lot better than last time).

Right now, they consistantly dominate Japanese sales charts with the DS and DS games - DS games regularly occupy 50% or more of the games charts, and the DS outsells every other console or handheld handily. This is giving them a massive war chest, not to mention a lot of fans of the DS who may be easy to sway over to the Wii... On the flip side, if the weird controller scheme is bad, it will hurt them. And if they don't get 3rd party games, that will hurt them too.

Either way, though, Nintendo isn't going anywhere.

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?

Re:Nintendo selling?

[/dev/niall]

Nintendo is a privately held company. One of the largest in fact.

Actaully, it's been traded on a number of exchanges during it's history, most recently the Tokyo exchange (since 1983).

Company History

Re:Nintendo selling?

[joshsisk]

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.

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).

Huh?

[MuckSavage]

Wait, wasn't sony buying apple? No wait. Disney was buying apple. No, crap. Pixar is buying disney. No that's not it. Microsoft bought apple back in '95! No, that's not right.

I'm so confused.

everyone mod this article down!!!!

[xshader]

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?

Do what now?

[Rob T Firefly]

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.

AHHHH-HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAA

[WedgeTalon]

This is one of the silliest things I've read all week.

Yes, the very profitable Nintendo is going to sell themselves to the maker of the Pippin. That would be a brilliant move!

whatever

[aleksiel]

apple could buy /., too, for its new sleek, stylish look

The Apple Purchase/Speculation Game!

[ettlz]

Join players like Dvorak and so forth in predicting: What will Apple Computers buy/do next? No qualifications are needed. In fact, they're recommended against! So, what will your speculation be? Is Apple going to...

• buy Nintendo?
• buy a fertilizer factory in Peru?
• go into the soft drinks business?
• open an on-line strip-joint and call it iBoobs?
• start shipping marvellously good-looking military hardware?

It's all open for speculation — 'cause in this game, there are no rules, and nobody really gives a fuck anyway!

Re:The Apple Purchase/Speculation Game!

[flooey]

Don't spread it around, but I've got $100 at 300-1 on Apple getting into the produce business. It'd be genius!

Re:The Apple Purchase/Speculation Game!

[Criffer]

I'd go with the "marvellously good-looking military hardware". I can't wait to get my hands on one of their iSurfaceToAirMissile (or iSam). Looks just like an iPod, can take out a stealth bomber and has a 50GB hard drive!

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.

I want to be a web writer.

[supabeast!]

I want to work for CNET or some similar company as a hypothetical business analyst. I want to get paid to show up for work stoned, sit down, and write random stories about how big companies could hypothetically buy each other, or release new product lines, or exit entire markets, based on nothing more than my being to stoned to write something worthwhile. Then I'll want my boss to try and pass my garbage writing off as news, and later complain when the old media, politicians, and the general public refuse to take online journalism seriously.

I can't believe that they actually pay people to write that shit. What's worth, I can't believe how many bloggers and link aggregators keep linking to them.

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.

Merged entity

[Anonymous Coward]

will be called Nipple

Re:Even if they had enough now...

[AuMatar]

Nintendo was already #2 in terms of sales worldwide and #1 in terms of profit last generation. This time they may take #1 in both.

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...

Thought Proccess of an Industry Analyst

[tourvil]

Hmm, Nintendo's releasing a new console this year.

Oh look, it's all white and shiny.

Hey, Apple makes white and shiny things...

OMG! Apple is going to buy out Nintendo! *hurries off to write an article*

Re:Would kill them in the Japanese market

[Dan Ost]

Funny you should say that considering how much better the iPod is doing in
Japan than any of its Japanese-manufactured competitors.

Re:Don't forget the Steve Jobs/Disney&ABC conn

[kilgortrout]

He's the single largest (minority) Disney shareholder after the Pixar buyout not the majority shareholder -- that's a really big difference.

Get it right!

[Infonaut]

I'm so confused.

Sheesh. The incompetence around here. IBM is buying Apple. Actually, before that happens, Apple will buy Nintendo. Then IBM will buy Sun, at which point IBM/Sun/Apple/Nintendo (iSunNipple) will buy out Disney/Pixar. From there, world domination is pretty much assured, as iNippleDix will be unstoppable.

Unexplained packages

[ewg]

I've been wondering what some of these mystery packages are for.

• /System/Library/Extensions/Wiimote.kext
• /System/Library/Frameworks/GBAKit.framework
• /System/Library/CoreServices/Encodings/libSpacePir ateConverter.dylib
• /Developer/Applications/Utilities/RacoonSuit.app

Not to mention this /Users/mario directory I can't seem to read...