Microsoft Talked About Buying Nintendo in 2020 (No, Seriously)

gameranx.com:

Hold on to your breath folks. Microsoft seriously had a talk about acquiring Nintendo, and we don’t mean 20 years ago. This was a discussion they had as recently as August of 2020.

In one of many internal emails that leaked for the company, Xbox head Phil Spencer actually addressed the topic to Chris Capossela and Takeshi Numoto. Capossela is Microsoft’s Chief Marketing Officer for consumer business, and Numoto is their Chief Marketing Officer for the commercial business.

So this was a conversation Phil had with Microsoft’s top marketing people about the potential for acquisitions, with a key focus on Nintendo.

Here’s what Phil said in the letter:

“Takeshi, I totally agree that Nintendo is THE prime asset for us in Gaming and today Gaming is our most likely path to consumer relevance. I’ve had numerous conversations with the LT of Nintendo about tighter collaboration and feel like if any US company would have a chance with Nintendo we are probably in the best position.

The unfortunate (or fortunate for Nintendo) situation is that Nintendo is sitting on a big pile of cash, they have a BoD that until recently has not pushed for further increases in market growth or stock appreciation.

I say until recently as our former MS BoD member ValueAct has been heavily acquiring shares of Nintendo (https://www.reuters.com/article/us-nintendo-valueact-exclusive-idUSKCN2232VT) and I’ve kept in touch with Mason Morfit as he’s been acquiring. It’s likely he will be pushing for more Nintendo stock which could create opportunities for us.

Without that catalyst I don’t see an angle to a near term mutually agreeable merger of Nintendo and MS and I don’t think a hostile action would be a good move so we are playing the long game. But our BoD