Yamauchi family offering up shares for Nintendo’s proposed buyback

The founding family of Nintendo will offer up its shares as the platform holder prepares to detail its share buyback scheme tomorrow.

Bloomberg reports that the Yamauchi family will sell part of its holdings in the company – estimated to comprise around ten per cent in total – as part of the strategy revealed by current Nintendo president Satoru Iwata last week.

It is understood Nintendo will purchase as many as 9.5m shares, representing nearly 7.5 per cent of its outstanding stock. The Yamauchi family is said to have a desire to sell” as part of this process, although it is not known how much of its stock will be offered.

Former Nintendo CEO Hiroshi Yamauchi, who ran the company for 53 years until 2002, left his stake in the company to his four children upon his death in 2013.

Iwata is the first Nintendo president to come from outside the Yamauchi family.