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Polygon: Disney can save Nintendo, for 19 Billion.

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http://www.polygon.com/2014/11/21/7259147/disney-nintendo-acquisition

Lot more at the link.

Pixar won in every important way in that deal, from the cash to the power. So today I’m making a new prediction: Disney’s next acquisition will be Nintendo.

THIS WOULD BE EXPENSIVE
Nintendo would be Disney’s second priciest intellectual property grab to date. A fairly straightforward way to ballpark a company’s worth is to multiply their net revenue by three to four times. This puts Nintendo somewhere in the neighborhood of a $11 to $22 billion buyout based on the numbers of fiscal 2014

This is the lowest it would cost to buy Nintendo in seven years, since the company is in a slump and bleeding cash. If Disney were to buy the company, this is the time. Things are looking up for Nintendo in some ways, but coming off a long stretch of losses and struggling hardware sales there's only so much big games can do to help the company. Nintendo is at a historic weak point, making the company very attractive for acquisition at a good price.

It would still cost a ton of money. To put the $19 billion-ish price into an easy to digest number, buying Nintendo would cost Disney more money than they paid for Pixar, Star Wars and Marvel, combined. It’s a huge purchase, unless you’re Disney.

Disney’s current Net Worth is hovering around the $142 billion mark, and the profit they made from the last two fiscal years would allow them to buy Nintendo with cash, if it came to that. And it wouldn’t.

The last time Disney made an acquisition this size was when they paid $19 billion for ABC in 1996. With inflation, that purchase would have cost about $29 billion today. Disney is no stranger to huge, ambitious acquisitions.

Disney — using the same game plan they used for Pixar, Marvel, and Star Wars — could recoup that cost within five years. The secret is that Disney wouldn't be investing in the video game business, they would be furthering their already near monopoly on characters.
Click to expand...

I don't even...

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They would go after Hasbro first; they already have pretty decent ownership due to their purchase of Lucasfilm.
 
I'm kind of curious because it seemed like Disney doesn't really have much interest in pursuing big video games anymore.

And the audience Nintendo would draw is something they already get easily.
 
If only there were some sort of pie chart to help me understand. Ah well.

Not that it matters anyway: Nintendo seem like the one company you can guarantee would never sell out just on principle, likely even if it was the end of the company. Not that they would need to at this point in time anyway.

edit:
rekameohs said:
Maybe a pie chart would help explain things.
Click to expand...

Beaten to the punch :(
 
What's the last Disney-published game that sold more than 10 million, let alone the 30+ million sellers of games like Mario Kart Wii and Wii Sports?

Sure, it could happen, but Disney would TANK Nintendo, no questions asked. It would take the Nintendo branding and IPs and churn them through their marketing / toy-making / TV-show / movie / whatever machine and spit out something barely recognizable. Oh, and we might get a handful of games each year, too.
 
Reuters article tomorrow: "Investment bankers in awe over breakthrough company valuation method discovered by gaming news site Polygon. Markets ended up 400% around the world."
 
Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahhahaahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaaaaaaaaa
 
While I know a lot of people are going to turn up their nose at the idea, I want to consider this possibility.

Partnering with Disney could be huge if they remained in the hardware business. Exclusive Disney licenses handled by some of the best devs in the industry, including Star Wars and Marvel. We could see a massive expansion in Nintendo and even a Nintendo theme park (or at least part of a theme park.)

On the other haaaand. It's possible that they wrestle creative control of Nintendo's IPs and shovel them off to B-tier devs. There could be a huge exodus of talent from Nintendo and they could potentially leave the hardware industry.

Simply put I'd like to see the best case scenario but the worst case scenario would be a disaster.
 
I like how the author of the piece proceeds to comment on the extreme risk of the value in terms of money, then promptly writes it all off with "unless you’re Disney."
 
Japanese companies are extremely notoriously difficult to purchase outright. The stock purchase rules are very different.
 
Why does he says he's making a prediction just to say it will never happen afterwards.

That's not a prediction.
 
Nintendo is worth $19 billion? That sounds weird. Especially since we had a thread where Activision was worth more.
 
Disaster Nebraska said:
What's the last Disney-published game that sold more than 10 million, let alone the 30+ million sellers of games like Mario Kart Wii and Wii Sports?

Sure, it could happen, but Disney would TANK Nintendo, no questions asked. It would take the Nintendo branding and IPs and churn them through their marketing / toy-making / TV-show / movie / whatever machine and spit out something barely recognizable. Oh, and we might get a handful of games each year, too.
Click to expand...

Mario theme parks and cartoons.
 
EA should buy them then we can have awesome characters like Issac from Dead Space and Shepard from Mass Effect in Smash Bros. It can run on Frostbite 3 and have a darker, grittier feel. Plus we could get those cool Origin achievements!
 
The article's title is clearly clickbait with the word "saving". However, this is just a hypothetical piece saying "what if" and how much it would cost.

Criticize the title if you want, but it's simply a hypothetical. So much anti-Polygon circlejerking on this forum.
 
Somebody please remind Polygon that Nintendo is a Japanese company and it's pretty damn near impossible for an US based company to simply "acquire" them like that. Their market is very rigged against this.
 
That seems unlikely to me, if only because they'd have shit synergies. Disney has been shopping around a crapload of entertainment icons but integrating (or even basically coordinating) NCL would be pretty daunting.

Plus, I have no idea how they'd go about actually buying these shares.

Cybit said:
They would go after Hasbro first; they already have pretty decent ownership due to their purchase of Lucasfilm.
Click to expand...
That would make way more sense.
 
Industrial fanfiction.

Why.jpeg

Though to be fair to those of us who read:

The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of, and should not be attributed to, Polygon as an organization.
Click to expand...
 
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