Hostile takeovers, which are less common than you think, happen when one company slowly increases its stake in another company in order to be able to control it down the line without having to acquire it outright.
As the name suggests, this is usually not something the victim company wants. The process takes years, as we’ve seen with Ubisoft’s arduous fight with Vivendi when the latter revealed its intent for a hostile takeover. This could technically happen to any publicly traded company, especially one as powerful and profitable as Nintendo.
Responding to an investor question at Nintendo’s recent earnings call (via Nintendo Life), company president Shuntaro Furukawa revealed that Nintendo has systems in place to guard against any possible hostile takeover attempts.
“We have not adopted what is generally called anti-takeover measures. However, in the case that we face a malicious takeover which would damage the value of the company or the common interest of the companyʼs shareholders, we do have systems in place, both within the company and in connection with outside experts for such an occurrence, to take all legal and appropriate steps against it even if we have not proactively put preventive measures in place.
“This is a topic we will continue to investigate further,” Furukawa said [PDF].
This obviously doesn’t mean someone is eyeing Nintendo, but it’s an interesting question nonetheless, especially now that the company found its footing again with the success of Switch.
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Source: https://www.vg247.com/2019/05/09/nintendo-can-protect-itself-from-hostile-takeover-attempts/
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