subdirectory_arrow_right Nintendo (Company)
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According to Activision Blizzard's former CEO Bobby Kotick in an interview on the podcast "Grit", the American conglomerate holdings company Berkshire Hathaway was at one point interested in buying Nintendo, or at least exploring the idea of it. Former vice chairman Charlie Munger had mentioned this to him during a period in the early 2010's when French investment company Vivendi was forced to sell its stake in Activision Blizzard, as Berkshire Hathaway was one of the potential buyers (in the end, they would buy themselves back from Vivendi and go independent). Kotick claimed that Munger didn't like the business of video games, feeling that they were "a step removed from gambling" and that Kotick was "preying off people's addictions", but he saw financial value in Activision Blizzard and Nintendo as companies:
In the end, Munger never went through with the idea, and Berkshire Hathaway has not shown any interest or intent to buy a video game company since.
"He goes, 'You know, I was looking at a couple other companies in your sector. I think if we bought [Activision Blizzard], we should buy that company Nintendo, too.' He said, 'Have you guys looked at it?' I was like, 'Yeah.' It was trading [at the time] at like 13 billion, with 7 billion in cash. He goes, 'You know, I don't think anything is gonna go really bad before I'm dead, and then if it goes bad after I'm dead, they'll just chalk it up to the folly of an 82-year-old, so you don't have to be so concerned about disappointing me.'"
In the end, Munger never went through with the idea, and Berkshire Hathaway has not shown any interest or intent to buy a video game company since.
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In 2023, Activision Blizzard was ordered to pay $35 million by the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) over its failures to maintain proper workplace disclosure controls and violations of whistleblower protections. The fine was imposed due to the company’s failure to ensure proper employee protections against workplace harassment and gender discrimination, which led to many women leaving the company. The SEC used a 2021 lawsuit by the state of California’s Civil Rights Department against Activision Blizzard to launch its own investigation meant to determine whether the firm’s handling of the situation constituted a breach of its fiduciary duty to investors. The proceedings were started after the company’s home state charged it with violations of the California Fair Employment and Housing Act in summer 2021.