Saudi Arabia Increases Its Stake in Nintendo Again - News
by William D'Angelo , posted on 15 February 2023 / 6,682 Views
Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund (PIF), a wealth fund chaired by crown prince Mohammed bin Salman, in May 2022 bought a 5.01 percent stake in Nintendo and last month increased its stake by 1.06 percent to 6.07 percent.
A new report from Trading View states Saudi Arabia's PIF has once again purchased even more stock in Nintendo. This time the public fund has purchased an additional 1.01 percent in Nintendo to bring its total stake to 7.08 percent.
Saudi Arabia's PIF in its first investment in Nintendo made it the fifth largest shareholder in Nintendo.
The fund has also invested over $1 billion in Japanese video game publisher and developer Capcom and South Korean video game publisher Nexon. This investment ads up to a stake of more than five percent into both Capcom and Nexon.
Saudi Arabia's PIF in December 2020 acquired over $3 billion of stock in Activision Blizzard, Electronic Arts, and Take-Two Interactive, and in June 2022 bought a $1 billion stake in Embracer Group.
The Saudi Arabia's crown prince has a goal of making the economy of the country less reliable on oil.
A life-long and avid gamer, William D'Angelo was first introduced to VGChartz in 2007. After years of supporting the site, he was brought on in 2010 as a junior analyst, working his way up to lead analyst in 2012 and taking over the hardware estimates in 2017. He has expanded his involvement in the gaming community by producing content on his own YouTube channel and Twitch channel. You can contact the author on Twitter @TrunksWD.
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Don't get yourself banned.....you know who you are xD
I came in just expecting to seeing bombs bombing.
Look, I get it, you don't have to keep meming on me, especially with all the other shit I have to deal with in life.
Don't worry, I'm not meming on you. I just know how strongly you feel about this subject, but we gamers stick together no matter our differences :)
Well if we're sticking together why do you all keep making me the butt of a tired and unfunny joke when I'm trying to warn everyone of what's gonna happen?
I'm pretty sure we're all well aware of what's happening and what's going to happen. But this isn't isolated to gaming. Almost every major industry is knee deep things we would detest. The only thing we can do is choose what to support and what not to.
I just didn't want you to say something that would get you banned.
I'm just tired of being helpless to do anything. I want to keep buying Nintendo stuff, but I don't want to fund a terror state.
Yeah, but Nintendo is also a publicly traded company. They don't have a say when it comes to who and who can't buy their shares. It's all about what the local government allows. Unfortunately instances like this is what happens in a Capitalistic society. There's nothing we can do about it aside from becoming billionaires and buying up as much as stock as humanly possible lol. But it's up to you what you choose to buy.
I just wanna be able to keep playing new Nintendo games without Sharia Law shoved up my ass. All else I've been able to do is hope the Saudi royal family is forced out of power.
You complain about not wanting people to meme you when you are doing it yourself.
You don't think I'm trying to not be memable?
If you are then you are failing.
You sound like you'd shit on me even if I just breathed.
Nope, I shit only on toilet.
Mod Note: Okay, everyone. Settle down, stick to the topic of the article, and stop making it about each other.
Well, It is clear that Saudi Arabia sees the video game industry as a good investment in the long term.
I know most people disagree with the politics of the Saudi kingdom. I count myself among those people. But, as investors, the Saudi sovereign wealth fund has a track record of taking very long term views. So I'd see this as a positive sign for the gaming business.
A more skeptical view might be that the saudis are trying to take control of influential media. But, afaik, the Saudis, as investors, do not have a history of trying to control things in that way.
The fact is that Saudi Arabia is not a democracy with even some resemblance of separation of powers. With countries like these it's never "We're an independent pension fund and merely invest in whatever makes sense put political leadership is legally never allowed to interfere in the companies the pension fund invests in."
I don't think any country, democracy or not, can be counted on to stay out of those kinds of things. So, there are definitely some things to be concerned about here. But, it is what it is. And, on the bright side, Saudi Arabia is not doing anything bad with their video game stakes to this point, as far as any of us know at least.
Saudi Arabia is actively working to whitewash its reputation through cultural events such as sports. They are already interfering.
You are correct that they are trying to "whitewash" their reputation what sports. But, I would argue that that's all the more reason to assume they will not interfere in the business. Doing that would achieve the opposite of white washing their reputation.
Also, what they're doing with sporting events and what they're doing with gaming do not appear to be the same thing.
But I'm certain they will. If there's a new Metal Slug game on the horizon they'll have any and all Arab enemies cut from the game. Nowhere did it say they were supposed to be Saudis, but still.
They don't have a history of doing things that way, until they do.
Sure. And right now they don't have that history.
Then look up sports events just as football or Formula 1. Look up how other oppressive countries like China make pop culture media such as movies portray China in a positive light through Tencent. China is just more advanced than Saudia Arabia, Qatar, Bahrain, and so on. If Cuba did the same, US media would be outraged. There would be further sanctions. The fact that Wahhabi extremists are allowed to pull that sh*t in the public light just shows how advanced Saudi whitewashing already is.
But you're moving with goal posts here. We're not talking about whether using media to influence thought is acceptable. We're talking about whether Saudi Arabia has a history of messing with the video games business. And it seems that they do not have that history.
Video games are a form of media. That's not moving goalposts.
You are aware that USA do everything you are talking about on regards to using media to manipulate people right? All other ocidental government and companies do the same.
Whataboutism.
using same standard is whataboutism?
And in terms of government's exerting control over media to spread their propaganda, nobody is going to argue that governments don't do that. They absolutely do. Western governments are no better. You could argue that Western governments are more benevolent. But you can't reasonably argue that they aren't manipulating public opinion via mass media.
Classic example of whataboutism.
Yes, that's exactly what you did when you mentioned white washing via sports. We're talking about whether they've messed with the video game business, and you're talking about how they've started investing in sports to pretty up their image.
That an absolute monarchy with an appalling human rights record is getting involved with foreign companies is definitely concerning. However, currently rules do not disallow them from buying stock in a publicly-traded multinational corporation in another country. One hopes that market forces (i.e., their desire to make a profit) will continue to keep their authoritarian tendencies limited to within their own borders.
But I honestly can't say I'm surprised they're doing this. The House of Saud clearly sees the writing on the wall with regards to oil. The days of petroleum are numbered because of two key realities: climate change and the inevitability of peak oil. Diversification of their economy was necessary, and in a world where money talks and BS walks, their deep pockets are not going to be overlooked when it comes to new business opportunities for all parties involved. Maybe the real problem is the economic system that makes stuff like this possible in the first place.
Maybe something good will come from this. Or maybe we'll get lucky, and I know this isn't a likely outcome, and something will cause the Saudi monarchy to go bankrupt.
Nintendo should poke fun at the Saudi Prince in their next game, and see if they get any backlash.
The backlash will be another 15% purchase.
And 150 whip lashes.
Or at least an unflattering character based on him who gets humiliated.
If that happened and I was Nintendo I would just warn my employees to be sure to stay away from any Saudi embassy .
Well if that did happen then there would be huge repercussions towards Saudi Arabia. As in ones that could get innocent bystanders killed over there because of the royal family being idiots. From what I've seen the monarchy isn't THAT stupid.
Bombs away!
I put on my construction hat for falling debri
In before the meltdown starts
New article. Saudi Arabia just increased it's stake in nintendo again again. They now own 8.26% of Nintendo.
Maybe they want their share of the love hotels business…
Mario Kart to feature Aramco ad banners
They just keep going.
They are going slowly but steady
Good! This decreases the possibility of woke garbage in Nintendo games!
Might as well accept that gaming at large will be funding war crimes and Sharia Law.
Its Time to give up the Nintendo!
The start of the fall, i dont know why nintendo is selling his soul to the bone saw prince. Money talks ....
If they're buying public stock on the market, I don't know that there's much Nintendo can do about it.
How much stock does Nintendo own in their own company, if any.
I'm not too savvy with all this stuff. Sorry
https://www.nintendo.co.jp/ir/en/stock/information/index.html
Nintendo owns about 10% of its own stock directly as treasury shares. Another 5% or so is owned by Japanese individuals which may include Nintendo directors and executives.
Nintendo however is authorized to issue 400,000,000 shares, and there are only about 130,000,000 outstanding. Meaning Nintendo can release more of its stock to be purchased by people who will not be willing to resell it.
At this point, Nintendo isn't really at risk of being purchased by Saudi Arabia IMO, but I'm not an expert on US corporate law, and definitely not on Japanese corporate law. Seems to me though that there is plenty they could do to prevent a sale to a party they don't wish to be sold to.
Then why aren't they doing more to prevent such a possibility?
It can be expensive.
The most effective way to prevent a takeover is what is called a poison pill. It basically says that "if any one shareholder acquires more than X% of our shares, all other shareholders have the right to purchase shares at a discount, or possibly free.
https://www.investopedia.com/terms/p/poisonpill.asp
Interestingly, a high (but not Supreme) court in Japan recently ruled that a shareholder's right plan, aka poison pill strategy is legal. Nintendo commented a couple of years ago on such a plan.
https://www.nintendolife.com/news/2019/05/nintendo_president_comments_on_the_risks_of_a_potential_hostile_takeover
Another fun strategy is the crown jewel strategy. Where essentially there is an agreement with a third party "If anyone ever owns more than 25% of the stock in Nintendo, you have the right to purchase the Mario and Pokemon IP for $$$." So if you buy the company you buy it without the biggest IP.
So, maybe it will make you feel better to know that Nintendo does have some tools to fight off a hostile takeover. Will they use them? No idea.
All that being said, there's really no good way I'm aware of to prevent a particular person you don't like from buying small amounts of shares.
All else I've been able to do is hope that something happens that makes such a dent in Saudi Arabia's pockets that they can't buy anymore shares, and/or have to sell off their shares to someone in Japan.
That's not gonna happen. It's really up to Nintendo and their legal team. From my, very limited, understanding of Japanese business law, it's more protectionist than the US, so it would be difficult. If Nintendo continues on its current trajectory, I don't see it happening. If there's another Wii U situation, then it may be tougher to prevent.
Well then can I still smile if Saudi Arabia is hit by more floods and/or locusts? That's the only real punishment they've gotten since the ceasefire started with Yemen.
I mean, you can do whatever you want. Personally, I wouldn't smile at that because while I think the leadership is disgusting, I don't wish anything bad upon the people, who are also victims of the regime, even those who actually support it. History has shown how tragically easy it is for otherwise good people to become warped. And of course, I'm sure many people who actually don't support the regime are just unable to do anything.
All else I can think of is hoping for positive changes in Saudi Arabia.
