When Rivalry Brews: The Surprising Company That Once Eyed Nintendo for Acquisition
By We’ve previously heard about various companies expressing interest in acquiring Nintendo over the years (*cough* Microsoft *cough*), and it turns out there was another major American corporation eyeing it as well back in the day (thanks to Gamespot).
This information comes from a recent episode of the Grit Podcast, where host Joubin Mirzadegan welcomed former Activision CEO Bobby Kotick and former EA CCO Bing Gordon to share their experiences in the gaming industry.
During a discussion about Kotick’s connection with Berkshire Hathaway vice chairman Charlie Munger, he revealed that Munger’s company had once considered acquiring Nintendo—an intriguing possibility, given the spontaneous decisions that a large entity like Berkshire Hathaway might contemplate.
Kotick claims that this conversation occurred in the same meeting where Munger expressed interest in acquiring Vivendi’s stake in Activision, despite his professed lack of interest in video games, viewing the medium as “a step removed from gambling.”
Interestingly, this segment of the dialogue appears to have been removed from all versions of the podcast (Spotify, Apple, YouTube etc.), with the edit now skipping directly to Mirzadegan’s follow-up inquiry regarding Vivendi. Fortunately, the related transcript in the earlier two instances still provides a glimpse of what was said, so here is Kotick’s statement, based on the Apple Podcasts transcript:
He remarked, “You know, I was looking at a couple of other companies in your sector. I think if we acquired yours, we should consider buying that company Nintendo too.” He asked, “Have you guys looked into it?”
And we were like, “Yeah, it was valued at 13 billion with 7 billion in cash.” Then he went on, “You know, I don’t believe anything’s going to go terribly wrong before I’m dead […] and if it does go wrong after I’m gone, they’ll just chalk it up to the folly of an 82-year-old. So you shouldn’t be so concerned about disappointing me.”
It goes without saying, this was merely a discussion, and none of the proposals ever materialized—Activision sold the Vivendi shares, and, unsurprisingly, Berkshire Hathaway never acquired Nintendo—yet it is an intriguing ‘what if’ scenario to ponder.
If Berkshire Hathaway hasn’t crossed your radar, it is the Warren Buffett-led conglomerate with stakes in companies like Apple, Amazon, Bank of America, and more. It is one of the largest corporations in the US by total revenue and recently became the nation’s first non-technology firm to be valued at over $1 trillion. Imagine if Nintendo properties had to negotiate with that.
Munger passed away in 2023, the same year Kotick stepped down as CEO of Activision Blizzard following Microsoft’s acquisition. At that time, Kotick had been at the center of various controversies and allegations that had been denied by both Kotick and the company prior to settlements being reached.