Nintendo Shares BuyBack: Yamauchi Family To Sell Their Shares?

Nintendo has stated that it is prepared to purchase as many as 9.5 million shares  - at 12,025 yen apiece - in an extraordinary buyback deal amounting to around $1.1 billion US Dollars (approximately £649,525,000).

The deal has been offered in an effort to calm worried Nintendo shareholders after the company's third dismal financial forecast in three years, revealed heavy losses of around £205 millon.

According to an article on the Bloomberg website, among the shareholders now wishing to sell their shares back to Nintendo, is the family of Hiroshi Yamauchi - the former CEO and President of the company, who is largely credited with turning the Nintendo brand into the successful video gaming powerhouse it is known as today.

Hiroshi Yamauchi worked at Nintendo for 53 years

Hiroshi Yamauchi had around ten percent of shares in Nintendo at the time of his death on the 19th September 2013. These shares were subsequently divided between his four children after he died.

It is still unclear whether the family wish to sell all of their entire percentage of shares back to Nintendo, or just a portion of them. Nevertheless, with Nintendo share prices having steadily fallen by almost eighty percent since 2007, the buyback scheme could not have come at a more appropriate time.

Sotaru Iwata CEO and President of Nintendo

Other special measures have been implemented by Nintendo since learning about their current losses,  including a fifty percent cut in pay for the current CEO, Sotaru Iwata, and another thirty percent pay-cut for the two board directors, who include Shigeru Miyamoto, creator of the hugely successful Mario series of games.

Shigeru Miyamoto faces a 30% pay reduction

Other board members will all face pay-cuts of up to twenty percent. It is not known how long these pay-cuts will remain in effect. Nevertheless, Iwata's pay is likely to remain halved for the next five months at least, in recognition of the company's recent losses.

Nintendo do seem to be making a sincere effort to recover from their recent loss but it will only become apparent in next year's financial report whether or not any of these special measures have helped to yield future profit for the company. Only time will tell...

Nintendo 3DS and Wii U To Support Paid-For DLC, Says Iwata...

Nintendo President, Sotaru Iwata, has promised 3DS users that the console will have a paid-for Downloadable Content (DLC) Service by the end of the year.

According to the Andriasaang website, Mr. Iwata told investors at an earnings briefing in Tokyo, that Digital Downloads would be available for the 3DS by the end of 2011.

 According to the article, Nintendo are currently trying to create a paid item transaction system that would allow users to download purchasable items for 3DS games.

However, at this stage, it is impossible to know what kind of downloadable content would be featured in the service or how this might affect the type of features offered on the console at the moment.

The announcement comes after Nintendo announced that it was going to dramatically drop 3DS console prices from £219 to just £130, in order to combat falling hardware sales.

Furthermore, Mr. Iwata has personality taken a fifty percent cut in pay after accepting responsibility for the failing sales of the 3DS.

 Other members of Nintendo's Board of Directors have also taken a twenty-three percent pay cut, after a recent finacial report showed that Nintendo's estimated earnings may suffer a loss of up to eighty-two percent by the end of the fiscal year, resulting in a sharp decline of stock value.

It is hoped that the introduction of paid-for DLC will help to curb the current loss in sales, boost eShop usage and help make the 3DS more attractive to new respective buyers. Mr. Iwata also confirmed that digital stock will now be Nintendo's main focus for at least the next three years.

Mini Gamers is very interested in the introduction of the DLC service. Keep checking in with the blogsite for more news on this subject as it happens.