M&A activity is meaningless, says Iwata

In the wake of the Activision Blizzard deal and EA’s proposed move for Take Two, Nintendo president Satoru Iwata

has told investors

that mergers and acquistions add little real value to the companies involved.

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.”

But the Nintendo president added that Nintendo is looking at snapping up certain rights and technology:

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.”

In a comprehensive interview, Iwata also revealed his thoughts on Microsoft’s rumoured Wii remote-style controller.

For the highlights of the Iwata interview, head over to our interview section, where the Nintendo president speaks out on price cuts, hardware sales, changing console lifecycles, Nintendo’s recent success, more on M&A and also his thoughts on new competition entering the market.