This is actually kind of exciting... when I read about the stock buy back I was thinking it was just a smoke screen to increase share prices to appease key share holders. Buying a company seems to be clearly in their plans.

For those that are saying we shouldn't be talking about large companies - only small ones - you're actually incorrect. If it was someone like Platinum Games, they could do that with money Iwata has in his cookie jar. The stock buy-back and terms like "merger" indicate something of significance. They are buying back 7% of their own stock... I would speculate that any purchase may have value of 10% of Nintendo's, or even more. The purchase may be non-game or QoL project related, but since we know nothing of that I'll stick to talking about games.

I've said for some time Nintendo needs to purchase a 3rd party to add content to their platforms and bring in some non-Nintendo brands to bring in customers (and also weaken the competition's 3rd party support advantage). Some options:

Capcom (approximate market cap: $1.33 Billion US) - Nintendo could easily buy Capcom outright. They bring valuable IP's and developer capacity for their price. RE and MH are especially valuable in the Japanese market... however Capcom already has solid support for Nintendo, at least on handhelds.

Square Enix (mc: $3.2 billion US) - A purchase of SE is possible, but costly. Taking a controlling interest is also possible. SE presents several valuable assets for Nintendo: 3 capable western developers, 2 of the largest Japanese IP's and a large, valuable back catalog.

Take2 (mc $1.72 billion US) - A strictly western company, Take2 would potentially compliment Nintendo's Japanese focus. GTA is a massive franchise, and 2ksports could become a sports division for Nintendo, lessening the impact of feuds with EA.

Personally, I think Capcom is a waste of money. As long as Nintendo's platforms are viable, Capcom will support them. Square Enix and Take2 both present interesting possibilities. Personally, I would purchase SE and streamline its operations to make it more productive and efficient. The western stuidios could produce new, western-focused IPs or create new versions of some Nintendo IPs such as Metroid, FZero or Starfox. In Japan, having FF and DQ exclusive to Nintendo platforms would lead to domination of the market. This would lead to full support from other key Japanese publishers such as Capcom and Konami. Full Japanese support and improved sales would lead to better western support and improved sales all around. In the end, Playstation would have lost a key title(s) - FF has essentially been the brand's "Zelda" since FF7 debuted - while Nintendo would have eliminated its 3rd party disadvantage.

Take2 would also be a potentially great pick up, and they have been open to a take over in the past. GTA is one of gaming biggest brand, but the old library has less value than SE's catalog - the value is in new titles which mostly make the old ones obsolete upon release. Nintendo having a sports division would also be of great value. However, I would view this as a secondary option to SE since SE has more development resources and established brands. And most of all, a SE takeover would lead to a complete market takeover of Japan and greatly improved 3rd party support.

3rd party support really is key, as if Nintendo had full support it really wouldn't need to be considering any takeovers at all.

This is "I like playing games from third party X/Y/Z. Nintendo should pay $3 billion for them, even if in reality it would take them 20 years to ever see a profit on that investment" -- the thread.

Half the brands you guys are talking about would have giant collapse in sales in limited only to Nintendo platforms. 

$1 billion dollars could finance 50 new IP aimed at dudebros/matooor players at massive budgets a piece. Resident Evil is a past its prime franchise, Megaman is no more popular anymore than F-Zero or Star Fox is, and Nintendo can't be bothered with either of those. Street Fighter is well past its prime too. The only Capcom series that's in its prime is Monster Hunter, and Nintendo already has exclusivity over that (basically). 

SE's two biggest franchises, FF and DQ, are massive in Japan.  If they were exclusive to Wii U, Wii U would dominate sales there and all 3rd parties would support the system.  Wii U's sales could double or tripple (not just in Japan, but worldwide) with much more software being sold.  Throuh hardware sales, software sales and 3rd party software royalties Nintendo could realistically make back its investment before Wii U's life is over.  And having the SE back catalog and future titles to launch future platforms could be key.  I think now is the time to pick up valuable IP's.  In the future I think content will be more important than advanced technology.  Having brands with sentimental value such as Mario Zelda and FF can influence future purchases.

And none of that would come even close to repaying that $3 billion dollar price tag. 

You'd have to sell 80 million copies of Dragon Quest or Final Fantasy before you see any red from that type of investment. It would be a terrible business move. 

Japanese developers are largely growing increasingly irrelevant in the game space. Final Fantasy is no where the brand it once was and Nintendo already gets all the Dragon Quest games. 

They'd be 100x better off in the game business investing in some new Western studios or even pursuing a deal with Disney that grants them exclusive use over properties like Star Wars, Marvel/Avengers, etc. And that would cost nowhere near as much and probably bump hardware sales higher on a global scale if the games were of sufficent quality. 

Capcom and Platinum Games would be so awesome! Megaman could be in Smash (haha ;) ) But seriously I would prefer this two because I can think about the possibilities and I can see it in the future. Come on, please^^

I don't think this change would be bad for games and franchises od both companies. I'm not sure about some of the other some people mentioned here.

Actually, this is where you're very wrong, and this is the fun part.  If we assume the exclusivity of all SE franchises results in 10 million extra units of Wii U being sold, acquiring SE would be 50% paid for before Wii U's life is done.  I think this is a fair assumption since FF has a very dedicated fan base, and there is also Tomb Raider, DQ, KH and others to push Wii U's.  So if they sell 10 million extra Wii U's, they make $10 off each Wii U going forward, the attach rate for software it 8:1 and the first-party proportion of software remains consistent with past Nintendo consoles we get:

That's nearly $1.5 billion without even considering any money SE is making.  In reality, I think SE exclusively on Wii U would have an even greater impact, as it would push further 3rd party support and I can see 20-30 million more units of Wii U being sold.  But 10 million is pretty safe.

What's possibly even more important is selling new consumers on the Nintendo brand.  You want Wii U's in every home.  A failed gen can have a lifetime of consequence.  The benefit of reversing the terrible start of Wii U could be profound.

The problem with spending cash on new ip's and games is that consumers only have so much time and money. As we've seen with games like W101, they are often ignored, and seldom sell systems.  People won't buy it because they want to buy FF already, and will buy a PS4 to play FF.  As you have said before, creating an innovative, exciting new idea is easier said than done.  NIntendo also needs to build the talent and resources to make such games, which would be an enormous task.

Picking up an existing publisher would provide the staff and resources to make AAA games right away.  It would provide established brands to lure in buyers and convert them from competing products.  It would provide a deep back-catalog which can be sold to conumers through eshop.  Nintendo could also gain from SE's online gaming experience and powerful graphics engines.  And it could quickly reverse the fortunes of Wii U, something new studios could never do.

.

I think Nintendo will merge/acquire another company, but it's going to be something non-related directly to the game industry. Loosely tied to entertainment I guess.

It will be a profitable company that provides Nintendo with new profit streams in other areas of business, which can carry them during periods where the game industry isn't doing so hot.

Iwata would have a lot more cover right now from stockholders if he had another division that made anything -- ramen noodles, women's lingerie, an anime division ... whatever that was bringing in cold, hard profit at a good clip.

They shouldn´t touch the sinking ship that is SquareEnix....seriously: I bet they won´t be around....or at least severly crippled by the start of the next generation

 There are only so many blatant mobile cash grabs a company can make before it devalues their IPs.

I honestly would like them to do something with Capcom because (imo) they still have so much potential....but the management is killing the company from inside.

Take2 wants to stay independant at all cost, EA tried to buy them, but they somehow were able to not let it happen....and honestly: T2´s IPs just don´t mix paricularly well with the Nintendo audience....in contrast to Capcom´s


....I just want Capcom to get it´s shit together :(

I do think that any mergers/acquisitions are more likely to be in the health/licensing/online infrastructure categories. But that said...

Capcom/SquareEnix would both be very interesting. Either could provide a 'mature' label for Nintendo to publish 18+ rated games through, while preserving its family friendly branding. The fact that both would bring a lot to the table in terms of IP, studios and experience is an additional consideration. And current quality concerns can be dismissed as under Nintendo's ownership I think the quality control would be ramped up significantly.

Of the two, SquareEnix would be the biggest bombshell: FF, DQ, Deus Ex, Tomb Raider. Big games that push systems, and push competitor systems.

I think Platinum would be a very wise move purely from an increasing output point of view.

I can't see Ubisoft being bought outright by Nintendo, but perhaps a merger could work. The big issue would be for Nintendo to demonstrate to their board and shareholders that a joint company would be in stronger position than Ubi on their own. Obviously releasing on 1/2 platforms as opposed to 6 is going to massively harm the potential sales, but that said, if Ubisoft was given a lot of autonomy, especially in Europe, it might be worth their while.

I know .... they should buy Naughty Dog.

Sony is in need of money!