Iwata: Nintendo considering mergers and acquisitions as an option

Nintendo President Satoru Iwata said mergers and acquisitions are an option for turning the company's fortunes around in a Nikkei interview. Iwata said the company "should abandon old assumptions about our businesses. We are considering M&As as an option. For this reason, we'll step up share buybacks."

This echos Iwata's statements during a press conference earlier this month in which he said Nintendo is "thinking about a new business structure" and is specifically "studying how smart devices can be used to grow the game-player business." It also follows news of the company having to drastically cut its forecasts for the fiscal year, taking its expected Wii U shipments down from 9 million to 2.8 million.

Additionally, Iwata commented on the option of Nintendo delisting itself from the stock market, saying that "quarterly earnings reporting is not a good fit for Nintendo." He said that even when Nintendo thinks a goal is reachable, it doesn't for sure know whether a product will be a hit. "But it is thanks to the stock market that Nintendo has grown to what it is today. I don't want to turn to a management buyout just because we are inconvenienced now," he added.