Microsoft¡¯s video game head Phil Spencer might have been correct when he wrote, in a piece of corporate cringe straight out of HBO¡¯s ¡°Succession,¡± that acquiring Nintendo would be a ¡°career moment¡± for him.
Spencer¡¯s dream of buying the venerable Japanese firm was revealed, alongside other confidential plans, in an accidental leak of emails related to Microsoft¡¯s video game operations recently uploaded to a federal court website. The email concerning Nintendo is dated 2020; Microsoft has acknowledged the leaked documents, but says ¡°much has changed¡± since they were written.
What hasn¡¯t changed is Nintendo¡¯s undoubted attractiveness as an asset. Even after Microsoft completes the $69 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard, it could no doubt afford the purchase. But even if Spencer somehow convinced Nintendo¡¯s board to agree, and assuming such a deal cleared antitrust regulators, it¡¯s hard to conclude it would be, as he wrote, ¡°a good move for both companies.¡±
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