“Much has been discussed about Apple’s (AAPL) cash hoard and how it can best be used,” Don Douglas writes for Minyanville. “This discussion often ends with the opinion that Apple should at least initiate a dividend or some other unexciting scenario.”
Nintendo “currently in a product transition period. After scoring a runaway hit with the DS and Wii, the company is currently searching for and working to develop its ‘next big thing,” Douglas writes. “I believe this has positioned the company in a time frame where a deal could be done. Nintendo’s market cap is currently around $17 billion and shrinking by the day. In a couple more trading sessions, the stock could be trading at book, which isn’t too far away. But the story gets better. The company is sitting on over $11.5 billion in cash and no debt to speak of.”
Douglas writes, “Apple would pick up some great intellectual property and potential protection around the world… [plus] just think about the game libraries, characters, and licensing that Apple would acquire. Apple could do one of two things with this: 1. It could swallow it whole and have a real game development arm or; 2. These characters could be easily licensed to any number of media studios creating an endless supply of royalties and a kick to Apple earnings for years to come.”
Read more in the full article here.
What should Apple do with its huge cash pile? Rent out a hit squad to silence some of these morons.
+100500
Or invent a mega phaser to do the job by osmosis.
??????
Ahhh… Yup.
Soytenly! If anything, buy Adobe. F*** Nintendo. I don’t give a damn about Nintendo.
Actually, my thoughts are … buy RIM.
The strategy is to deny Android easy access to the ‘Secure Email’ tools to support the Enterprise market, and to work to expand the iPhone into Enterprise by the same toolbox.
-hh
Actually, my thoughts are … buy RIM.
Ballmer’s scrotum agrees with you below. But it’s not gonna happen, as I explained to him…
Hey MDN, 1999 want’s their story back.
Your English teacher wants her apostrophe back.
LOL +1
Apple doesn’t want to be in the games publishing business any more than they want to be in music or book publishing.
Apple provides iTunes as a way for developers and publishers to get their products directly to consumers. This is their business model.
Mr. Douglas shouldn’t get his hopes up on this one.
Exactly.
Too many analysts/tech pundits still believe that owning content is the key to success.
Why the heck should AAPL buy Nintendo? AAPL will do fine without them. It’s always interesting when people have such ideas about how others should be spending their own money.
Apple could license the Nintendo characters? This would do nothing to improve Apple’s brand or value. But it would get them in markets that they have no business being in. Don is a hit whore.
Apple should foster goodwill upon the nation.
I propose a pizza and a six-pack be delivered to all who ask on SuperBowl Sunday.
i can now be writerz pleeze?
First, Nintendo is a Japanese company. The Japanese Government won’t let an American company buy a Japanese icon like Nintendo.
Second, Apple should buy Valve for a lot of good reasons, but especially for the Source engine as an API for developers to build more insanely great things on top of. Valve gets games and Apple has always had a blind spot for gaming.
That’s what I think, anyway.
This makes a lot more sense than the boneheaded suggestion to buy Nintendo.
This rumor, again?
I guess when you want people to believe in an implausible rumor with nothing to back it up, the only option is to keep repeating it.
Nintendo’s share price is sinking for a reason. The Wii was a hit til others came up with something better what on earth could they do to replicate that judging by past blind alleys. Paying a fortune for a fraction of its worth to Apple will not be a good way to strengthen Apple’s worth or confidence of investors in the new management.
You know what? I think Quaker Oats should buy Snapple! Yeah, that’s the ticket! How could that acquisition POSSIBLY go wrong? A huge, successful company buying a popular brand of flavored water everybody loves . . . . It’s a sure thing! Where’s my checkbook? (Sarcasm intended, along with a not-so-subtle relationship to this particular suggestion.)
Dumb idea. Apple is NOT a game developer, nor does it want to be one. Games and popularity are a very tricky business, and frankly the popularity of Nintendo’s characters is waning. Nothing new beyond adding a 3D effect has happened in years.
Apple won’t receive royalties for endless years as the author claims, because the lack of innovation in these games is slowly killing off the character’s value. Plus, Apple would need to continue to develop competing game systems to its iOS line of devices, and provide backward compatibility, and Apple doesn’t want to do that.
A better use of Apple’s money? Send loyal iPhone and Mac buyers a check as a thank you!
After the Olympus accounting scandal, I’m a bit leery of Apple buying Nintendo. You don’t know what might lurk in the details.
Having said that, why buy the cow if you can get the milk for a lot less. Apple shouldn’t buy Nintendo, but it’s a good idea to work more closely with them to get Nintendo games officially on the iOS platform. So, negotiate a licensing deal or something akin to the Beatles deal. A win-win for both.
Buying Nintendo is a stupid idea. Apple should use its huge cash pile to build several orbital laser satellites and hold the world hostage.
No
Apple should acquire RIM & buy a clue why standing still in the smartphone business is equivalent to buying a ticket for steerage on the Titanic.
Sorry scrotum, but no. RIM has nothing to offer anyone at this point. They are simply going to be left to die. We get to watch. Pass the popcorn please.
Hey Mr. Douglas you are a dumba$$. All the “smart” industry experts know that Apple is going to buy Kodak.
just my $0.02
My smartness is ever in question, but I have expert knowledge about Kodak.
There is no way Apple would even consider buying Kodak. There is enormous baggage that comes with Kodak, enough to make ANY potential buyer cringe. We’ve had a previous discussion here about the details.
I could, however, see Apple buying a few (not all) of Kodak’s patents. But that won’t happen until the current court cases are over and until Kodak are gasping for cash, which has not yet occurred. At that point Kodak would be willing to sell off anything for cheap, making the patents more palatable to Apple.
Buy it to kill it ? why bother it’s dead already – but just hasn’t quite worked it out yet.
Their products are about to be overtaken in every department by obsolescence or indifference. They have to compete against a business model that sells games for a few dollars that are instant buying decisions verses a bricks and mortar retail model that charges too much for the same ‘Mario does …’ – again and again – boring
Innovate Innovate Innovate. There are still lots of stores to build. The whole education thing is still under-developed. TV is just a new frontier for Apple. If they could get 75% of the worldwide TV market because the TV is just so cool, that would be quite a project. They don’t acquire names, they kill names. They only acquire what’s really new and game changing. That isn’t Nintendo. The writer thinks normal, not different. Personally, I wish they would buy Disney and Sony Entertainment (not the hardware business).
Just buy the one company who has really p****d them off lately – adobe – fix their products the apple way and hey ho everyone’s happy
I doubt this would happen until (versus unless) Adobe hits the skids and is ready for bankruptcy a la Kodak (which Apple wouldn’t buy in any case). Adobe still has enough cash and sales to hold its own, allowing it to continue selling product to the market.
When Adobe has sufficiently fracked itself over to the point where there is a danger of their products either failing or being sold off to nasty Apple competitors, Apple would consider them an acquisition of interest, or so says my magic bowl of spaghetti. 😎
BTW: What is killing Adobe is Marketing-As-Management. Oops. Suicidal.
Apple doesn’t need Nintendo’s IP.
There’s no reason for Apple to buy Nintendo, but there might be a reason for Disney to buy them. Character licensing is what Disney’s all about.
-jcr
One of the dumbest things I’ve heard on my life…
This is the second time in a couple months I’ve read this bizarro concept. Not gonna happen. Apple has no interest in the gaming business. Apple is not going to embarrass itself by buying its way into the gaming market like Microsoft has. FAIL. 😛
[Yes, I am biased as I find the classic Nintendo games to be intensely boring]
What if Apple bought Nintendo for gaming on the AppleTV?