Saudi Arabia now owns 5.01% of Nintendo

[Mr Jt (Gog is king)]

The purchase was made by the Public Investment Fund, a sovereign wealth fund that makes investments on behalf of the kingdom. The PIF is controlled by Saudi Arabia’s controversial crown prince and effective ruler, Mohammed bin Salman.

A Nintendo spokesperson told Bloomberg that it had learned about the investment from news reports and would not comment further.

This is just the latest, most high-profile, and largest in a series of investments made by Saudi Arabia’s PIF in the video game industry, which has had a particular focus on Japanese firms (due in part to the weak yen). Earlier this year, it acquired 5% stakes in Capcom and Nexon (which is South Korean, but trades on the Tokyo stock exchange). In late 2020, the PIF made a $3 billion investment in smaller stakes in American games publishing giants EA, Activision Blizzard, and Take-Two. A subsidiary of the crown prince’s foundation also owns almost all of Metal Slug and The King of Fighters developer SNK.

Video games are a prominent area of investment for PIF, although far from the only one. One of its largest investments is a $3.5 billion, 5% stake in Uber. It owns smaller stakes in Disney, Facebook, and Boeing. In 2021, PIF led a consortium that purchased Newcastle United Football Club, of the English Premier League.

Analysts differ on the reasons for PIF’s video game investments. Some suggest they are pure speculation, gambling on the wave of consolidation rolling through the games industry at the moment. (PIF stands to make a profit on its Activision Blizzard shares if the $70 billion Microsoft acquisition goes through, though it’s a brave investor who sees Nintendo as an acquisition target.) Others think that Saudi Arabia is interested in building its own content industry and is keen to learn from companies in this sector. Another theory is that the investments are a sort of financial PR or whitewashing, aligning the undemocratic and repressive state more closely with global culture.

Most companies would hesitate to welcome that alignment, however, and the spectre of Saudia Arabia exerting its influence on the global cultural stage is a worrying one.

Big yikes…..
Full article:
https://www.polygon.com/platform/amp/23122317/nintendo-saudi-arabia-investment-crown-prince-pif

[my new friend]

Ok. Nothing new with any of the Middle East royalty and oil magnates.

[Murassa [TR]]

5% irrelevant
Just as irrelevant of that 9% elon musk owns of Twitter

[Dallas S]

You mean rich monarchies that operate off slave labour use their money and resources to invest in things that will make them more money? Damn bro, unprecedented.

[Dallas S]

Also that Jamal kashoggi ♥♥♥♥ was a bunch of inbred royalty feuding with eachother.

You do know that Jamal khashoggi and his family were intertwined with the Saudi Arabia royal family for almost a century, right? His father was the personal doctor of king Abdulaziz Al Saud, the founder of Saudi Arabia, and his entire family are billionaires that stemmed from that.

It had nothing to do with "dissident freedom loving journalist" and more to do with royalty infighting amongst themselves, and the media and western countries tried to spur another world war from it, just like ww1 was a family feud between royalty that drug the rest of the world into.

Of course the media liked to leave out this very vital fact when they were trying to spur the rest of the world into war over it.

[D34F Grrrl]

They probably just looking to stick some investment into things they think will return them more money over time I assume.

But anway 5% is nothing at all, It would only be worth concern if they bought a large share with a possible look to an actual takeover of the company at 51% shareholding.

Nintendo owned by the Saudi's instead of the Japanese would be too weird for me.

[Der tüddelige Fußgänger]

As long as it's just a deal in the background and the games don't change, i am ok with it.
Just hope that there won't be microtransactions in the next mario or Zelda, where you can buy durability for swords or dumb Mario costumes.

[davidb11]

Why would a 5% ownership cause any of those things, Nintendo guy?
It wouldn't make sense.

Now, if it was like 30%, sure.

Honestly, this does not surprise me.
I always wondered how long it would be before very rich people in the Middle East would get into the gaming sphere. By buying parts of companies.

Also, Elon didn't own 9%, he's buying the entire thing now. In regards to Twitter.

[earlysunsets2]

Originally posted by permanent name:

UK pandering.

Nurse!

[Menzagitat]

Elon should buy it.

[Gary Flank]

Originally posted by Menzagitat:

Elon should buy it.

why not? doesn't look like his other deal is going through

[my new friend]

Originally posted by Menzagitat:

Elon should buy it.

Japan wouldn't let that happen.

[Holografix]

i just posted the same kind of thread in the King of the Fighters XV steam forum because the saudi crown prince owns 96% of SNK.

I asked about whether the KoF XV community should boycott SNK given the saudi prince's anti-humanitarian reputation and actions.

Let's just say i recieved many 'jester' awards.

[davidb11]

Originally posted by Holografix:

i just posted the same kind of thread in the King of the Fighters XV steam forum because the saudi crown prince owns 96% of SNK.

I asked about whether the KoF XV community should boycott SNK given the saudi prince's anti-humanitarian reputation and actions.

Let's just say i recieved many 'jester' awards.

Not the right place for that, I'm afraid.
It also is a bit much to say as well.

No one is going to try to make China look downright Humanitarian. :P

[Holografix]

Originally posted by davidb11:

Originally posted by Holografix:

i just posted the same kind of thread in the King of the Fighters XV steam forum because the saudi crown prince owns 96% of SNK.

I asked about whether the KoF XV community should boycott SNK given the saudi prince's anti-humanitarian reputation and actions.

Let's just say i recieved many 'jester' awards.

Not the right place for that, I'm afraid.
It also is a bit much to say as well.

No one is going to try to make China look downright Humanitarian. :P

i don't understand your post.

[𝕎𝔸𝕃𝕋𝔼ℝ]

more clickbait. Most wealth funds have stakes in an absurd amount of companies. Nothing new under the umbrella.