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[Falchion]

Definitely a lot of blah in those last 15 years. Also I didn't realized it had been so long since they released their last game.

 

[Schopenhauerian]

...But Nintendo (who had bought bits and pieces in small, manageable pieces that eventually added up to 49%) wasn't comfortable laying out that much money all at once, so they didn't want to buy, and asked the Stampers to look elsewhere... If Nintendo had taken the Stamper's first offer, they could've had Rare for much less than half of $375 million...

...But it's true - Nintendo sold the company for an outrageous amount of money compared with the real value of the company at that time, but if they bought the company for a smaller amount before entering in the bid spiral by accepting the first Stamper offer...

...why Nintendo should have spent at least $100M to acquire the remaining 51% of Rare stocks ($100M is what allegedly Nintendo received from the sales so it's fair to assume that's roughly what Stamper brothers asked to Nintendo)...

...Fact is, The Stampers offered Rare up to Nintendo for a fair market value, and then when Nintendo declined, Microsoft bid up the price...

...Microsoft and Activision got into a bidding war over Rare, and then Activision pulled out, but Microsoft didn't use this opportunity to lower their bid, because they wanted to keep the high bidding-war price up to scare Nintendo away, since Rare was still giving Nintendo the "dibs" advantage. $375 million was called "exorbitant", but Nintendo had a chance to pay less than half of that amount to secure the company, with no outside interference, and they let that chance slip away. They even had first dibs on keeping Rare after they learned what companies like Activision and Microsoft thought Rare was worth...

Nintendo didnt sell rare they just werent willing to go for the full buyout the stamper brothers wanted, they were willing to increase their stake from the 49% they already owned but the stampers just wanted a total cash out of the business

Is there a good source on the specifics of the offers that were being made by Rare to Nintendo (or to Rare by others), during the early years (starting in at least 1999, perhaps earlier) that Rare was on the market? I’m looking at various accounts, but not seeing much in the way of specifics. Perhaps there's something I've missed:

http://www.nytimes.com/1995/04/19/b...nintendo-to-buy-stake-in-british-company.html
The Nintendo Company Ltd. said yesterday that it would purchase a 25 percent stake in Rare Toys and Games Ltd. of Britain, the developer of the best-selling video game "Donkey Kong Country." Terms of the deal were not disclosed, but executives close to the companies said the investment was over $25 million. The investment, Nintendo's first in a software company outside Japan, was motivated by "the opportunity to keep this developer developing games exclusively for the Nintendo platform," said Howard Lincoln, chairman of Nintendo of America...

http://www.gamecubicle.com/news-nintendo_rare_microsoft_official.htm
...In April of 1995 on the heels of Donkey Kong Country's success, Nintendo bought a 25% stake in Rare and spent $15 million to co-develop Rare's Manor Park R&D center in Twycross, England. At the time of the investment, former Nintendo of America chairman, Howard Lincoln told the Wall Street Journal, "Rare is an outstanding company... This is our way of putting our money where our mouth is." The investment assured the second-party exclusivity of Rare for a set time period. In later year's, Nintendo increased their interest in the developer to 49% and gained 38% voting rights on Rare's board. With Rare founders Chris and Tim Stamper seeking an exit strategy and Rare's exclusivity contract complete, Nintendo was given the option of buying the remaining un-owned portion of Rare. Nintendo declined…

https://web.archive.org/web/20050405131127/http://www.raretopia.com/mailbag/2002/07/15.html
When Nintendo first invested in Rare back in April 1995, it purchased a 25% share of the British developer. However, in October 1997 Rare expanded its operations and increased its nominal capital from £10,000 to upwards of £14.7 million. The shares were split between three companies. Rareware Ltd. is the majority shareholder (52%) and is owned and run by Chris and Tim Stamper. Rare Acquisition Inc. (37.8%) is owned by Nintendo Co., Ltd. and is represented by ex-NOA executive Howard Lincoln. The third partner is Rare Coin-It Inc. (10.2%), which is headed by Joel Hochberg...

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2012-02-08-who-killed-rare
...Justin Cook, designer on Viva Piñata, worked in the testing department in 1999 when the most junior staff members began to hear murmurs of a buyout.  “N64 had been disappointing for Nintendo - well, in comparison to the success of SNES - and GameCube didn't look like it was going to change their fortunes. Back in testing at the time we were stupidly cocky and thought that Rare was the hottest studio in the world. There was all kinds of gossip about potential buyers. It felt exciting rather than nerve-wracking, which probably shows how far off the mark we were. Microsoft didn't even crop up as a potential buyer until late in the day. I believe there were already some substantial dealings with Activision before Microsoft appeared as a potential buyer." In fact, Rare had been looking for a potential buyer for some years by the time discussions with Microsoft began.

"The company was on the market for several years, two years certainly, and this was driven by the majority owners Tim, Chris and Joel Hochberg," says Hollis. "The majority of middle management were enthusiastic followers of the idea but I always felt uncomfortable. EA, Activision, Disney and obviously Nintendo were all mooted. In the end I understand Mr Yamauchi [Nintendo's President] declined to offer more than a fraction of the value Rare was asking; shrewdly, it would seem. Meanwhile Microsoft had a strategic reason to buy, two reasons really: firstly so Nintendo would not have Rare's games, and secondly so that Microsoft would."

http://www.nintendolife.com/news/20...ea_why_nintendo_didnt_buy_the_studio_outright
However, Stamper admits that while the Nintendo years gave us some amazing games, there was a feeling within the company that it needed to move onto bigger and better things:

The price of software development was going up and up with the platforms, and Rare works really well with a partner. We were looking for someone to help broaden our horizons.

I like Microsoft. They had a great system, and there's a lot of good people at Microsoft.​

http://www.develop-online.net/inter...tamper-on-the-past-present-and-future/0209651
...While Nintendo remained a strong and valuable partner for Rare, the Stampers had their sights set on bigger things. Change was in the air. “The price of software development was going up and up with the platforms, and Rare works really well with a partner,” says Stamper. “We were looking for someone to help broaden our horizons.” That someone turned out to be Microsoft, which forked out a whopping $375m to completely own the UK developer – at the time a new record for high-value acquisitions… In 2007, Tim and Chris Stamper made the shock announcement that they were leaving Rare – the studio they had nurtured for more than 20 years – to “pursue other opportunities”...

http://www.n-sider.com/contentview.php?contentid=33
The first thread to be pulled occurred all the way back in early 2000. This was when long-time Nintendo of America chairman, Howard Lincoln left to join the Mariners board of directors. A mass of subsequent departures followed, beginning with Nintendo of America president Minoru Arakawa retiring on January 7, 2002 (After 22 years with the company), followed by Peter Main, executive vice president of sales and marketing, on January 31, 2002 (After 15 years at Nintendo), and Ken Lobb on March 01, 2002. Ken Lobb, in particular, had the most interesting departure out of the bunch. He left Nintendo to take a position at Microsoft as its Xbox Director of Content Planning. While at Nintendo, Lobb played an integral part in working with Nintendo and especially its second party developers…

Nintendo of America's Jasmine Ramya comments. "Although Nintendo doesn't comment on rumors or speculation by the media, we can tell you that Nintendo has made the decision not to request Rare to make any further exclusive games for the Nintendo GameCube. Although we're proud of our joint efforts with Rare over the years and have enjoyed our relationship with them, in fiscal year 2001, Rare accounted for only 9.5% of total Nintendo software revenue worldwide. In fiscal year 2002, that number declined to 1.5%. Therefore, in evaluating our investments in developers, as well as the financial benefits to Nintendo over the years, we've decided it's in Nintendo's best interests to focus on diversifying our portfolio of developers and projects."

http://www.blackfalcongames.net/?p=278
...Rare’s co-founders the Stamper brothers wanted to retire, and Nintendo had first dibs at buying the rest of company, but refused an offer to buy up the other 50% of the company for some not-very-good reasons.  Some Rare people wanted to try moving beyond Nintendo, as well.  So, both the Stampers and Nintendo sold to Microsoft.  This was a disastrous mistake…

Rare wasn’t sold until September 2002, well after the GC’s November 2001 release. Rare had no GC games early on because they had some struggles moving over to the next generation, and then just as they were working through them and were ready to start releasing stuff, they got sold to MS and had to start all over on a new console… Nintendo’s Japanese studios had struggled with the SNES-to-N64 transition, and Rare helped bail them out there.  Losing patience with Rare just a few years later when they were going through similar issues was incredibly hypocritical and wrong…