INTERVIEW: Satoru Iwata part two

Iwata on mergers and acquisitions:

Sometimes, some people say that Nintendo’s position will become even more solid if it purchased software companies by M&A, 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 M&A as meaningless.

There are the cases where M&A 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 M&A. When we determine we should, we should not hesitate to work on the M&A 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 M&A 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."

Iwata on Nintendo’s success:

Many people point out what we will do with increased money or that we own too much money. First of all, please understand that Nintendo’s business shoulders huge business risks.

For example, when we were still developing Wii or DS, no one could tell these products would be successful. Of course, Nintendo was doing its best to make them successful, but as of the time of developments, the reactions from the industry were rather skeptical.

It was even said around that time that Nintendo was running counter to the commonsense in the world."