On the flipside, that's one of the reasons that the Japanese financial institutions don't mind Iwata as much. The solid, reliable dividend payout policy that Iwata sets at the end of each Shareholder's Meeting is key to their support behind him.
Last year, investors received $122.59 million dollars last year with a consolidated payout ratio of 180.59% of the company's Operating Income, despite the company losing $349.06 million in their core business .
That's significant. Hell, it's the primary reason I keep my Nintendo shares around.
Nintendo has $14 billion in total assets. That doesn't mean all of those assets are represented as Cash or Cash Equivalents.
Property, plant assets, inventories, investments, and other intangible assets (like the value of Nintendo's trademarks) make up a significant amount of Nintendo's assets.
Specifically, they have $11.7 billion in current assets, or assets that Nintendo can expect to convert into cash within a year. Real, immediately-available free cash sitting in bank accounts / deposits right now is only $4.44 billion. Short-term (maturation within three months) investment securities intended to grow the business represent $3.67 billion of Nintendo's assets.
However, you should keep in mind that Nintendo's cash position is cyclical. The holiday season is where Nintendo realizes a significant amount of its profits.
The problems with the company are deep and quite troubling. That aside, a significant amount of money went into R&D for 3DS and Wii U, expanding development staff and brand new buildings...but they're also ramping up marketing and development costs...their margins are shrinking, and they're losing money with the Wii U / they lost money with the 3DS for a while.