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Mergers and Acquisitions |OT| Thread Merged

Acquisitions and mergers official topic

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Team Andromeda

Team Andromeda

Member
Woopah said:
They did own about half of Rare, and I could see them having bought the rest one day if the Stamper Brothers hadn't sold their half to Microsoft.

I know Factor 5 helped Nintendo with some technical areas on N64 and Gamecube, but I don't believe Nintendo published any Factor 5 games or accepted any of their pitches. So I'm not surprised Nintendo never bought them.
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RARE was awesome, on the Snes and N64. I have no idea why Nintendo didn't look to buy them out. Star Wars RS II is for the best looking GameCube game and the game that sold me on the Cube on its USA launch. That group did some nice stuff on the Snes and N64 too. I'm amazed Nintendo didn't look to work them more.
 
Elog

Elog

Member
Culture is everything and boils down to leadership on multiple levels. Takes a long time but is where the real value of any organization resides to ensure long-term success. Fully understand Nintendo's stance.
 
anthony2690

anthony2690

Banned
Mozza said:
I mean why would Nintendo want to spend billions on a developer, to only sell niche numbers of games from that said developer on their console, makes no sense whatsoever.
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I can imagine they could spend a couple hundred million (if that) on Mercury steam, their metroid dread game was well received.
 
Dolomite

Dolomite

Member
Lmfao I love Nintendo's attitude. They give zero fucks about anything MS and PS are doing....yet still print money in their sleep
 
yazenov

yazenov

Member
Good. Less competition for Sony to buy other Japanese devs .

Sony would probably release Monster Hunter Rise 2 on the Switch after buying Capcom.
 
Aion002

Aion002

Member
When you have a loyal fanbase, true exclusives and a unique approach, you simply don't give a shit about what the others are doing.

I don't really enjoy Nintendo games, but Nintendo....

Classic Film Respect GIF by Warner Archive
 
L

lostinblue

Banned
Shifty1897 said:
Translation: Remember when we bought the Metroid Prime devs for just a million bucks?
We'll buy another one of those when the opportunity arises.
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I'm sure they see that as a kind of mistake after Metroid Prime 3 mass exodus created Bluepoint Games and Armature Studio. Resignation of talent is not something that they like or are used to. Note that they instantly sold Rareware the moment that started happening too (not the whole story as the Stamper brothers were out for cash for their 51%, but certainly the reason they ultimately did).

I'm sure this snippet from 2008 holds true today:

Q: Tell us about your thoughts on Mergers and Acquisitions?​

Iwata: Sometimes, some people say that Nintendo’s position will become even more solid if it purchased software companies by mergers and acquisitions, but I have no such intention because buying such companies will not contribute to strengthening Nintendo in the true sense. I believe that it is not the company but the skills of the employees that matters most, and therefore regard mergers and acquisitions as meaningless.

There are the cases where mergers and acquisitions is effective. For example, if a company holds a very important patent that Nintendo wants to obtain that will help fight future battles in the video games business with a huge advantage, that would be a time when Nintendo would consider the possibility of mergers and acquisitions. When we determine we should, we should not hesitate to work on the mergers and acquisitions at that time.

Once again, however, it shall be confined to the situation where owning a specific expertise or intellectual property right which belongs to the company will be critical. I do not think that rapidly increasing the number of people who cannot share Nintendo’s unique way of thinking or Nintendo DNA will do us any good. I have never thought that we should do an mergers and acquisitions just because, for example, we have recently not been able to make the significant sales growth. Neither do I have such intention in the future.

Of course, there are technologies and rights that we are paying special attention to, but we cannot disclose them.
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Source: https://www.nintendo.co.jp/ir/en/events/080425qa/05.html

And in 2007, when they bought Monolith-Soft:

Q: Bandai-Namco issued a release about your purchase of Monolith Software. Have you changed your position that you will not do M&A (mergers and acquisitions)? Or, is this an exception? What is the purpose?​


Iwata: When we say we do not do mergers and acquisitions, there are always exceptions, so let me explain about it. We have never said that we will never do mergers and acquisitions in any situation. Actually, we are not against mergers and acquisitions if Nintendo can absorb the real value of the company. However, in most cases, the value of software developing companies is attached to its people, not the company, which is merely a vessel for its people. So, when we purchase a company, we can purchase the vessel, but we cannot necessarily purchase the contents. Even if we should compete with others to purchase a software company, although we might be able to increase the sheer number of our developers and to gain a short-term result, we do not think it will do good for us in the long run. We have been repeatedly saying that we will not do that kind of mergers and acquisitions.

In the case of Monolith Software, Mr. Sugiura, the president, and Nintendo have a long-term relationship. How Mr. Sugiura thinks is close to how Nintendo thinks. The software Mr. Sugiura would like to create is in line with what Nintendo would like to have for its platform. So, we thought that Nintendo should support this idea, and we decided to take action.

If certain conditions are met, we may do the same thing in the future (M&A). However, we will be very careful and selective, so that we will only partner with people with whom Nintendo can create a long-term working relationship.
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Source: https://www.nintendo.co.jp/ir/en/events/070427qa/index.html

So yeah, they won't merge and acquisition something for the sake of obtaining the IP, as the talent can just resign afterwards. Instead they'll only acquire something if it shares the "core values of Nintendo". And, IMO they won't ever buy something that's very big.

They will mostly acquire people they already have a working relationship with, like Next Level Games. (same type of acquisition as Sony buying Insomniac)

Spoiler: Activision/Blizzard is bigger than Nintendo.
 
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Punished Miku

Punished Miku

Gold Member
SteelAttack said:
What the hell is Nintendo DNA
Click to expand...
People who understand the company culture, and understand their development process. Gameplay first.

They've said they have some similarities with Platinum and Capcom though. And they obviously work closely with Namco on Smash / Team Ninja on Metroid. Mercury Steam described it as a big change when working with them.

I think they're just very picky, and prototype game design ideas first before even looking at story / art, etc. That and prioritizing innovation instead of graphical iteration. They also like hiring people sometimes outside game design that work in other fields, since they have original ideas.
 
Kacho

Kacho

Member
Bernd Lauert

Bernd Lauert

Banned
Lognor

Lognor

Banned
ChiefDada said:
How did you come to this conclusion? What qualitative and/or quantitative factors suggests that they overpaid?



What price are we talking about? Monetary wise, I don't think so. Knowing what we now know about the Sony/Bungie deal, I'd be willing to bet a pretty penny that the high level of independence and autonomy Bungie was seeking was too much for Microsoft.
Click to expand...

Here is the source: https://www.forbes.com/sites/paulta...stiny-2-but-it-cost-too-much/?sh=53d0680c17de

I don't think we knew what amount Bungie was looking for, but I would imagine it was less than Sony paid given the current climate.

And also, isn't it well known that Microsoft does give its devs a ton of independence and autonomy?

Here is an article that speaks to the autonomy and independence Microsoft will give Activision: https://news.xbox.com/en-us/2022/01/18/welcoming-activision-blizzard-to-microsoft-gaming/
 
AJUMP23

AJUMP23

Member
He knows that this deal has been in the works for months. Months before the ACT/Bliz MSFT deal was announced. It looks desperate, but Sony made this acquisition more in an response to wanting to grow liver service, than to the ACT/Bliz move. I think they overpaid, and it looks dumb, but they didn't do this to respond to the MSFT moves. They may have moved the announcement up in response, and that would be desperate.
 
It's all in the wrist

It's all in the wrist

Member
Sure seems to me that they overpaid for fucking Destiny, of all games.

I'm not sure of the makeup of the team, but I hope that's what they're paying for primarily, and not the IP.
 
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fart town usa

fart town usa

Gold Member
GigaBowser said:
You have to ask yourself though, if the deal between Sony and Bungie was in the making for 6 months, did MS's purchase of Zenimax prompt Sony to start negotiations, and did MS's purchase of Activision trigger the purchase?

Not saying it was a desperate move but it's pretty confusing that Sony spent 3 trillion on a multiplat dev and not something I think they would have done if MS hadn't started with the purchase of Zenimax.
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I know it's a typo but still pretty funny.
 
yazenov

yazenov

Member
lastmessiah said:
Have you seen how PlayStation is doing in Japan?
Click to expand...

Have you seen how well the majority of Capcom games sales that aren't even released on the Switch are making outside of Japan? Capcom doesn't need switch.

Resident Evil 7/8, Monster Hunter World, Street fighter 5 ect...
 
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CeeJay

CeeJay

Member
The Acti/Bliz acquisition was an order of magnitude above Bungie but it was still a pretty high price for them. Patcher is looking and commenting on this a bit too one dimensionally and doesn't really understand the real reasoning behind why Sony acquired Bungie. It's not really about Destiny its all about leveraging their GAAS framework and technology in all of Sony's other studios.
 
SenjutsuSage

SenjutsuSage

Banned

Microsoft chief hails $75bn Activision deal as grand step into metaverse

In first interview since acquisition, Satya Nadella says gaming will power tech giant’s computing transformation
www.ft.com www.ft.com

When the CEO of Microsoft is sounding more aggressive than Phil on not having to commit to keeping games on Playstation for regulatory approval, you know Microsoft is really all in on gaming... :messenger_tears_of_joy:


Phil Spencer, Microsoft’s head of gaming, has already given informal assurances that it will not take Activision’s most popular game, Call of Duty, away from Sony’s PlayStation. But Nadella suggested that Microsoft should not need to make any formal concessions to win regulatory approval for the deal, because it would still be too small to have an anti-competitive impact. “At the end of the day, all the analysis here has to be done through a lens of: ‘what’s the category we’re talking about, and market structure?’” he said. “Even post this acquisition, we will be number three with sort of low-teens share [of the video games market] . . . We will be a bit player in what will be a highly fragmented place.”

He also goes as far as to suggest boosting its game-building capabilities was close to the company's original business of creating software tools for developers. Damn.. that's a clever ass connection.

That would enable it to “democratise game building, which today is only done in the context of entertainment”, he said. In future, the same techniques would “bring it . . . to anyone who wants to build any space, and have essentially people, places, things digitised”. “We can start dreaming [that] through these metaverses I can literally be in the game, just like I can be in a conference room with you in a meeting. That metaphor . . . will manifest itself in different contexts,” he said.
Click to expand...

Suggests concessions from regulatory may come by way of how to build a future metaverse.


The Microsoft chief conceded that competition regulators were also likely to focus on the deal’s impact on the future development of the metaverse, rather than just on the current gaming market. But he said Microsoft was committed to building open computing platforms that would make it possible for people to move freely between different companies’ virtual worlds. He added that if regulators try to impose rules to keep any metaverses open and connected, they should apply the same rules to all the tech companies. “If that is what we want to define for every entrant, all I care about is having equal rules of the road for all participants,” he said. “So if that . . . comes through legislation or through regulation or regulatory enforcement, whatever form, we will be very open to it and engaging.”
Click to expand...
 
Ghost of Caelid

Ghost of Caelid

Banned
It’s deff an over paid defensive purchase but it’s smart on them to play the current game instead of acting like all is normal. When the industry is massively shifting everyone will be affected so you do what you can to either be defensive or offensive. Shoot even at some point Nintendo will have to do something so Sony made the smart move even if they had to pay a premium for it.

Edit: Xbox paid a 40% premium for ActiBlizzard. Also an over pay, which will always happen in a sellers market.
 
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Azelover

Azelover

Titanic was called the Ship of Dreams, and it was. It really was.
It's not a good idea to be keeping so much money right now.
 
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Jigsaah

Jigsaah

Gold Member
Badlucktroll said:
yeah wtf even is it!? like that movie ready player one?
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It's supposed to be like some VR world, that has it's own community, currency. It's like second life. Ready Player One but on downers. It's a bridge too far if you ask me. People are already enthralled by screens damn near for the majority of the day. Let's just put you in the screen. Fuck the consequences. It's an invitation for the world to put their heads in the sand(box) and escape from real life. It was pathetic in the book and movie....even worse in these infant stages that seem to want to mimic it.
 
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ChiefDada

ChiefDada

Gold Member
Lognor said:
Here is the source: https://www.forbes.com/sites/paulta...stiny-2-but-it-cost-too-much/?sh=53d0680c17de

I don't think we knew what amount Bungie was looking for, but I would imagine it was less than Sony paid given the current climate.
Click to expand...

The Forbes article you referenced alludes to exactly what I was saying; Microsoft wasn't willing to let Bungie operate as independently as they desired. Just switch Microsoft with Sony and vice versa in bolded statement as this is what ended up happening:
On the one hand, it’s almost unthinkable to imagine Destiny 2 support suddenly pulled off of PS4 and PS5, especially with 3+ more years of content planned for it, at the very least, and being Xbox and PC exclusive only. PlayStation is the largest share of the entire playerbase, after all. In that situation, you could imagine Microsoft just acting as publisher and raking in profit from PlayStation sales, and not taking it off the platform.

And yet you don’t pay hundreds of millions of dollars for a huge studio and their biggest game and not want it to be an Xbox exclusive, right? And maybe this is part of why this deal has fallen through multiple times.
Click to expand...

Lognor said:
And also, isn't it well known that Microsoft does give its devs a ton of independence and autonomy?
Click to expand...

Bungie's independence is VERY different. They have level of autonomy at the legal/entity level with their own board of directors.
 
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A

a multicultural team of v

Member
kingfey said:
Who thought they would be blocked by FTC?

IF Disney can buy fox, star wars, and marvel, then FTC wont stop MS from buying activision.

MS isnt the market leader in the gaming industry. That is Tencent, followed by Sony.
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Realistically there is no reason it would be blocked, but this FTC is under a lot of pressure so there is the risk they do something that is politically motivated.
 
SenjutsuSage

SenjutsuSage

Banned
It's clearly like a digital universe, think playstation home version of the internet, but controlling IP and properties to allow you to do things in a virtual space that maybe others can't, and videogame companies are the best weapon to create such things. Hell, Microsoft has the best pieces for a "universe or metaverse, Bethesda, Blizzard" If someone is making an imaginary virtual game world version of the internet that people can freely move between and engage in, those are two of the best teams possible. And they will also get the Call of Duty team that made warzone. Notice even Halo Infinite is now a more open style of game. They also got Sea of Thieves from Rare. Obsidian builds worlds, too.

I think that's what they're thinking. A ready player one type world. Or like that movie with Ryan Reynolds where he's a videogame NPC, minus the purpose being to commit in-game crimes or whatever lol.
 
ToTTenTranz

ToTTenTranz

Banned
We all knew Microsoft was going to push the narrative of we're so poor and small because the mobile market also counts, as if Call of Duty, Starcraft, Warcraft and Diablo has any relevance in the mobile market.

Regardless, it's not the GAFers or the financial times reporter that Nadella needs to convince. It's the FTC and those guys don't give a rat's ass about the opinions of forum dwellers.
 
Leyasu

Leyasu

Banned
The metaverse sounds like something that you will need a vr headset for no?

They'll get this one approved, and the next one
 
yurinka

yurinka

Member
CeeJay said:
The Acti/Bliz acquisition was an order of magnitude above Bungie but it was still a pretty high price for them. Patcher is looking and commenting on this a bit too one dimensionally and doesn't really understand the real reasoning behind why Sony acquired Bungie. It's not really about Destiny its all about leveraging their GAAS framework and technology in all of Sony's other studios.
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Well, it's way more than that:
-To own and milk Destiny in games, movies and tv shows
-To own and milk all future new IPs made by the creators of Halo and Destiny (multiple ones to be released in a few years) and milk them in games, movies and tv shows
-900 devs
-Industtry leading top knowledge, expertise, talent, data, tech and tools for GaaS that other SIE teams will use
-Industtry leading top knowledge, expertise, talent, data, tech and tools for massive MP games that other SIE teams will use
-Industtry leading top knowledge, expertise, talent, data, tech and tools for FPS that other SIE teams will use
-Securing that Destiny and future Bungie IPs will stay on PS and Sony game subscriptions
-To get a better positioning in non-PS markets like PC and even non-Sony consoles
-To show other 3rd party publishers that now Sony can acquire them and to allow them some freedom like allowing them to continue as publisher even in PC and non-PS consoles, similar to MS did with Mojang, Zenimax and ABK.

Ghost of Johto said:
It’s deff an over paid defensive purchase
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It isn't a defensive purchase, they started this acquisition half a year ago and the ABK acquisition started in December.

This acquisition continues continues Sony's strategy of acquiriing partners who can help them grow and improve in areas/markets/niches where their existing 1st party teams have many room to improve or need some help to excel or would welcome some extra support.

This week Sony also bought the mobile gaming development studio who made the game that has been generating around $1B/year to Sony for years. This acquisition was also in the works during months ago, has nothing to do with MS buying King.

It's for the same reason: Bungie will help SIE improve on AAA GaaS, top MP games and top FPS. This other studio will help Sony tto have their own top mobile games. By acquiring these successful parters Sony improves and grows in these areas.
 
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ToTTenTranz

ToTTenTranz

Banned
Microsoft announces purchase of Activision-Blizzard for $75Bn after 2 months of talks:
- What a well-thought deal. This is going to be great for Microsoft!

Sony buys Bungie for $2.4B with a further investment of $1.2B to incentivize employees to stay at the company, after 6 months of talks:
- Wow what an act of desperation from Sony!
 
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