Nintendo becoming a Berkshire Hathaway company was apparently a possibility.
One of Munger’s ideas, apparently, was to buy Nintendo.
“He goes, ‘You know, I was looking at a couple other companies in your sector.
“He said, ‘Have you guys looked at it?
I was like, ‘Yeah.’
It was trading [at the time] at like 13 billion, with 7 billion in cash.
That didn’t happen, though, asActivision ultimately bought itself back from Vivendi.
It was at this time that Munger reportedly said he wanted to fund the buyback.
And that’s eventually what happened.
“He didn’t like the business [of video games],” Kotick said of Munger.
“He thought it was a step removed from gambling.
He’s like, ‘You know, you’re preying off people’s addictions.’
And I was like, ‘I’m not.
He always had this… little bit of an aversion.”
Of course, Berkshire did not buy Nintendo.
As for Munger, he passed away in 2023 at the age of 99.
Microsoft also tried to buy Nintendo
More than 20 years ago, Microsoft tried to buy Nintendo.
The only disagreement Kotick and Nadella had around the deal focused on Microsoft’s vision for Game Pass.
“Why would I put that into a Game Pass?”
I didn’t believe in that.
But the beauty if you’re Microsoft… you might take that bet.”
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