An internal email revealed as part of the FTC lawsuit against Microsoft has confirmed that in 2020 Xbox boss Phil Spencer was interested in taking over Nintendo.
At that point, he actually thought the company was meaningless “The biggest trump card for us in the gaming sector.”
In an email to Microsoft Executive Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer Chris Capossela and Microsoft Executive Vice President and Chief Commercial Marketing Officer Takeshi Numoto, Spencer wrote:
I completely agree that Nintendo is THE biggest win for us in gaming and gaming is our most likely path to consumer relevance today.
I’ve had numerous conversations with Nintendo’s LT about working more closely together, and I think if any American company had a chance at Nintendo, we’d probably be in the best position.
The unfortunate (or fortunate) situation for Nintendo is that Nintendo is sitting on a large pile of cash and has a (board of directors) that until recently has not pushed for further market growth or stock appreciation. Measures.
Spencer’s email further revealed that former Microsoft board member and ValueAct Capital co-CEO Mason Morfit was there at the time “strongly acquire” Nintendo stock.
That’s why Spencer stayed in touch with him since it was him “He’s probably pushing for more Nintendo stock, which could create opportunities for us.” Without that, however, Spencer couldn’t see anything “a starting point for a short-term, mutually acceptable merger.”
Despite this, Spencer did not reject the idea in the long term and even left Of course, “we’re playing for the long term.” Wrote: “Our (board) has read the full report on Nintendo (and Valve) and they are fully in favor of it given the opportunity, as am I.”
