Support NeoGAF

[solarplexus]

Update from Bloomberg

``A merger will bring Bandai's strength in hardware, in the sense that they make toys, and Namco's creative software and characters,'' said Yuuki Sakurai, who helps manage the equivalent of $4.7 billion of Japanese equities at Fukoku Mutual Life Insurance Co. ``It's positive for the shares at least for the short-term.''

The merger will help the companies compete with market leader Sega Sammy Holdings Inc. as Japan's falling population and low birth rate means there are fewer children buying video games, Nikkei said. The companies may also develop content for high-speed Internet access and mobile phone users, the newspaper said.

Oh no, not more mobile phone games

 

[AniHawk]

Sega Sammy
Namco Bandai
Square Enix
EA UbiSoft

To think the top three were six separate entities at the beginning of this generation. I wonder why the change...

 

[Ulairi]

It's time for Nintendo to increase their position in the new company.

 

[John Harker]

Lets do America now.

Atari/THQ

 

[Amir0x]

Consolidation and more consolidation. Everything is as it should be: The Gears are in motion.

I can't say I care about this too much.

 

[JoshuaJSlone]

Lets do America now.

Atari/THQ

Despite Atari's history as an American company with a Japanese name, in its current form it's a mask for the European Infogrames.

 

[GaimeGuy]

Sega Sammy
Namco Bandai
Square Enix
EA UbiSoft

To think the top three were six separate entities at the beginning of this generation. I wonder why the change...

Increased development costs.

It was predicted like in 1998 that several big publishers woudl have to work together in the next gen or two in order to survive. Looks like that prediction is turning out to be true.

 

[Sagitario]

Lets do America now.

Atari/THQ

Midway/Activision =P

I really hope this means more good anime licensed games...

 

[John Harker]

yea, I know they were bought out by Info.

But their American Atari offices are in New York City, so I always just mentally place them there.

 

[John Harker]

Midway/Activision =P

I really hope this means more good anime licensed games...

I can really see Activison taking an aggressive stance like that this generation.

They are so veeeeeerry hungry to hurt EA in a big way.

 

[GaimeGuy]

yea, I know they were bought out by Info.

But their American Atari offices are in New York City, so I always just mentally place them there.

they were NOT bought out. The original atari went bankrupt. Info scooped the NAME up.

 

[dorikyasu]

Lets do America now.

Atari/THQ

American game companies? It'd be simply called "EA"...

 

[John Harker]

Well, a name is still an asset that has brand equity, so you can still technically say "bought."

But anyway, too bad someone did do that for Acclaim. If only for nostalgic reasons, haaa

 

[ge-man]

IIRC Nintendo owns the largest share in Bandai but it is still a minority share. At first they bought like 3% but I believe they are up to 6% now.

Nintendo will end up owning a tiny portion of the new company and I doubt that they will still be the largest shareholder because Namco's stock isn't as disperesed as Bandai's. Of course, they could always buy more shares of the combined company (which would be smart because Namco rocks).

I think this is a good oppurtunity for Nintendo. They got real cozy with Namco this generation and investing more into the merged company could benefit them in the long run.

I surprised that Capcom didn't merge with Namco though. I suspect that they will hook up with someone else next.

 

[Bartman3010]

Uhh....why for this merge? A good company merges with a company thats the Epitome of Crap.

 

[Mallrat83]

Soul Calibur=easily indentifiable weapon

Namco=creators of Soul Calibur

Nintendo+minority shareholders in Bandai

Namco and Bandai are now one

Nintendo + Namco/Bandai?

E3???

 

[GDJustin]

Uhh....why for this merge? A good company merges with a company thats the Epitome of Crap.

Bandai's $ comes from toys, not games, little junior member.

 

[GaimeGuy]

Uhh....why for this merge? A good company merges with a company thats the Epitome of Crap.

You do realize that Bandai is one of the top anime and toy companies in the world, right? (in fact, I think it's #1 in anime and toy distribution).

Yeah, their games suck, but they're a HUGE company

 

[ge-man]

Uhh....why for this merge? A good company merges with a company thats the Epitome of Crap.

Bandai is the largest toy maker in Japan IIRC--this IS good for Namco, regardless how one feels about their own development efforts.

 

[Andrew2]

I wonder how this is going to affect Namco's existing relationship with Sony. To get that I mean, Sony and Namco have a very close relationship not mention both Sony and Namco formed a couple of joint business ventures e.g the portal Playstation.com and investment in a studio tailored to produce special effects for CG movies.


BTW, the best I see coming out of this is that Bandai would get direct access to Playstation 3 technology should Namco make the PS3 hardware the basis of thier future amusement/arcade.

 

[Troidal]

I would now like to see a Dragonball Z game done by the Tekken team.

 

[GaimeGuy]

I would now like to see a Dragonball Z game done by the Tekken team.

Except for the fact that Atari/Infogrames owns the rights to make DB-based games for like the next 5 years.

 

[Troidal]

Except for the fact that Atari/Infogrames owns the rights to make DB-based games for like the next 5 years.

Ah...in the US yes.
In Japan, it's still with Bandai so I wonder how that would work.

 

[GaimeGuy]

Ah...in the US yes.
In Japan, it's still with Bandai so I wonder how that would work.

No, I'm pretty sure Atari holds the rights to make the games. Bandai just distributes the games in Japan for them as a publisher.

 

[jett]

Bleh. Bandai's games are all shit. You should've merged with Capcom, Namco-bitches.

 

[John Harker]

Well, Sony had acquired like 10% of Square during/after Spirits Within flopped, and Square still makes games for other consoles (DS, Cube). So I wouldn't expect too much of a negative difference on either Nintendo's or Sony's consoles because of the 6% owernship of Bandai by Nintendo.

Hell, if Namco/Bandai can sell 5X more of a came on PS3, that is still more money for Nintendo either way. And..... well, money is money.

 

[FitzOfRage]

No, I'm pretty sure Atari holds the rights to make the games. Bandai just distributes the games in Japan for them as a publisher.

No, Atari's deal doesn't cover Japan.

http://corporate.infogrames.com/pressreleases_story.html?sid=560

New York, January 11, 2005 - Atari, Inc. (Nasdaq: ATAR) announced today that it will continue its long-standing successful relationship with FUNimation Productions, Ltd. through a new five-year exclusive license for the Dragon Ball® franchise covering the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa.

 

[john tv]

Namco and Bandai will probably continue to exist somewhat independently under the same roof, in much the same way Sega and Sammy did. The new company will be called Bandai Namco Holdings.

If this means more Namco-developed Gundam games, it's fine by me.

Seriously, seems like a good match. I'm excited to see what comes from it.

 

[retardboy]

So who is actually buying whom? I'm thinking Bandai is because I believe they are much larger... Am I correct?

 

[Zaptruder]

Good move; The two companies complement each other quite well. For us videogamers it basically means good licences from a competent developer.

For Bandai, it means the market they've tried to break into for a long time will finally be well and truly sunk into, allowing them to leverage their creative properties much better.

 

[FitzOfRage]

So who is actually buying whom? I'm thinking Bandai is because I believe they are much larger... Am I correct?

Yeah, it looks like Bandai shareholders will be left with a slightly higher percentage of the combined company.

http://quote.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000006&sid=awVG2KcMQHPg&refer=home

Bandai shareholders will receive 1.5 shares of the holding company for each of their shares, the companies said in a release distributed at the Tokyo Stock Exchange. Namco shareholders will receive 1 share of the holding company for each of their shares.

 

[capslock]

Yeah, it looks like Bandai shareholders will be left with a slightly higher percentage of the combined company.

http://quote.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000006&sid=awVG2KcMQHPg&refer=home

So this means that Nintendo's 6% Bandai share is effectively 9% in the new company?

 

[Zaptruder]

So this means that Nintendo's 6% Bandai share is effectively 9% in the new company?

No. It means Nintendo's share in the new company will drop to 3.2%; unless they also had shares in Namco.

6% of 150 is 8; 8 of 250 (150+100) is 3.2%

If they had 6% in namco shares, it would've dropped to 2.4% in the new company.

 

[nubbe]

hmm... Nintendo was supposed to get a hold of Bandai and become Japans largest entertainment company :/

Atleast hope they come to their senses and pick up Capcom before it's too late.

 

[Cold-Steel]

hmm... Nintendo was supposed to get a hold of Bandai and become Japans largest entertainment company :/

Atleast hope they come to their senses and pick up Capcom before it's too late.

It sounds too good to be true, but I wouldn't be surprised to see Nintendo gain influence in this area through the merger.

Apart from that, this news is huge. Good for Namco.

 

[Mr Nash]

I hope the Namco name stays. The history of the company is pretty neat, trying to be a company providing fun in a time when Japan is still rebuilding after the war.

 

[Jonnyram]

I don't know what to make of this... it just seems like two big names coming together to improve financial stability in difficult times. I don't see Namco being involved much in Bandai projects and similarly I don't see Bandai interfering with Namco's work. But if they manufacture some Katamari Damacy toys, I'll snap 'em up!

 

[SantaC]

Bandai to Buy Namco for $1.7 Billion in Cash, Stock (Update3)

May 2 (Bloomberg) -- Bandai Co., creator of ``The Power Rangers,'' agreed to buy ``Pac-Man'' designer Namco Ltd. for about 175.3 billion yen ($1.7 billion) in cash and stock to create Japan's second-biggest toy and video-game software maker.

Bandai purchased 6.3 percent of Namco for 10.5 billion yen in cash, according to a joint statement released today. Namco shareholders will then receive 1 share each in a new combined company per Namco share, valuing their stock at 1,597.5 yen a share, about 14 percent higher than April 28's close.

The merged company will have more funds to develop video games for the $20 billion global market, matching increased spending by larger rival Sega Sammy Holdings Inc., formed in a merger seven months ago, and U.S. companies such as Microsoft Corp. A wider range of characters will also help the new company spur sales of toys, arcade games and cell-phone downloads.

``It's positive because they can complement each other's weakness,'' said Ryoji Nagaoka, an equity strategist at SMBC Friend Securities Co. ``Bandai has abundant characters but is behind in terms of technology. Namco has graphic technology to develop games for game centers but has no outstanding characters apart from Pac-Man.''

The Tokyo-based companies will combine Sept. 29 under the name Namco Bandai Holdings Inc., which will be led by Bandai President Takeo Takasu and Namco Vice Chairman Kyushiro Takagi. Bandai, which also owns characters such as ``Digimon'' and ``Mobile Suit Gundam,'' and Namco, which makes the ``Tekken'' martial arts fighting series, will meet the press at 4 p.m.

Market `Maturity'

Bandai shares fell 2.5 percent to 2,335 yen as of 2:27 p.m. in Tokyo, after dropping as much as 3.8 percent. Namco shares rose 8.8 percent to 1,530 yen, headed for their biggest gain since November 2003. The companies' shares were suspended for the first one and a half hours of trading, following an earlier report of the merger plan by the Nihon Keizai newspaper.

Japan's stock markets were shut Friday for a public holiday.

Bandai gets more than half of its sales from plastic models, trading cards, and other toys and hobby products, and about a fifth of revenue from video games software and stand-up video games consoles used in arcades.

Namco, which competes with Sega in Japan's amusement center market, gets more than 60 percent of its revenue from arcade machines and earnings from running its own game centers. Sales of video game software, which it makes for consoles developed by Nintendo Co., Sony Corp. and Microsoft, account for about a quarter of sales.

Failed Mergers

``Merging is one way of surviving in an industry that is very much nearing maturity, especially in Japan where the birth rate is low,'' said Yuuki Sakurai, who helps manage the equivalent of $4.7 billion of Japanese equities at Fukoku Mutual Life Insurance Co. ``It's unclear whether this merger will remain positive for the companies in the medium to long-term'' because of the ``difficult'' business environment.

Past merger attempts in the industry have failed. Sega and Bandai scrapped a plan to combine in 1997, citing differences in corporate cultures and product lines, while Namco pulled out of a merger proposal with Sega in May 2003.

Revenue at 17 global video game publishers fell 3 percent from a year earlier to $24.5 billion in fiscal 2004, DFC Intelligence, a San Diego-based market researcher, said on its Web site. Sony, Nintendo, Electronic Arts Inc. and Microsoft were the top four game software makers, DFC Intelligence said.

The cost for making video game is rising, as faster chips and high-definition graphics require developers to add more detail. Making a video game ``is getting to be more and more like making a movie,'' Microsoft's J Allard, a corporate vice president who helps run the company's Xbox unit, said in an interview in January.

for the lazy

 

[Zaptruder]

Exactly what anime licenses does Bandai hold?

 

[The End]

This is actually pretty good news.

 

[john tv]

Bandai did not buy Namco.

 

[AniHawk]

This is actually pretty good news.

It's good news in the sense that we might see some good anime liscensed games. It's bad in the sense that this is the third merger between two big Japanese companies in 3 years.

I think the bad far outweighs the good here, but I guess we'll see.

 

[DarkMehm]

No. It means Nintendo's share in the new company will drop to 3.2%; unless they also had shares in Namco.

6% of 150 is 8; 8 of 250 (150+100) is 3.2%

If they had 6% in namco shares, it would've dropped to 2.4% in the new company.

6% of 150 is 9; 9 of 250 is 3,6%.

 

[Zaptruder]

6% of 150 is 9; 9 of 250 is 3,6%.

Oops. Wonder why I ended up dropping one off... the point stands!

 

[Culex]

Exactly what anime licenses does Bandai hold?

Dan Doh!, Scrapped Princess, Onegai Twins, Aquarion, Digimon, the entire Gundam universe, Saint Seiya, Kaze no Jimbo, Ghost in the Shell: SAC, Wolf's Rain, Cowboy Bebop, .hack//sign....

...just to name a few.

 

[ram]

But they produce/distribute the best anime. Namco make pretty decent games. Win!

crappy licensed anime games for everyone *yeah* and hence, people complaining about crappy american licensed games, but everyone loves crappy anime based license games.

 

[WordAssassin]

BAMCO!

 

[The End]

It's good news in the sense that we might see some good anime liscensed games. It's bad in the sense that this is the third merger between two big Japanese companies in 3 years.

I think the bad far outweighs the good here, but I guess we'll see.

Not only will we see decent anime games, but on the whole, Banco is much better propared to foot the development costs of larger next-gen games.

 

[Blackace]

didn't wade through the whole thread but this news hit all the papers today...so it indeed happened...

 

[Bartman3010]

Hey, if their entire gaming division is liquidated for Namco, I'd feel better about them.