Activision founder says Berkshire Hathaway was once interested in buying Nintendo

Nintendo has never shown any signs that it would be willing to be acquired, but multinational conglomerate Berkshire Hathaway apparently had interest in buying the company at one point.

That news comes from the latest Grit podcast episode. Activision founder Bobby Kotick made the claim, stating that the former Berkshire Hathaway vice chairman believed it could be an opportunity despite having a negative take on video games.

Kotick relayed the following during the podcast:

“He goes, ‘You know, I was looking at a couple other companies in your sector. I think if we bought yours, 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.”

Berkshire ultimately did not purchase Nintendo, and Munger passed away in 2023. As of now the conglomerate has not yet made any movies with video game companies.

Another well-known story is that Microsoft tried acquiring Nintendo as well before kicking off its Xbox business. However, the Big N apparently had no interest whatsoever in a deal.

Thanks to Grit and GameSpot for the quote above.