How ridiculously wealthy is Nintendo this year?

by JC Fletcher { Jan 2nd 2009 at 11:50AM }

Despite reporting on it back in 2007 and reading the Wikipedia entry so many times, we're still foggy on what market capitalization is -- we think it's basically how many shares of stock are in the public, multiplied by the cost of one share. We have an impressionistic idea of what it means, though: the bigger the number, the more likely the company's executives are to have Segways (for example).

So how did Nintendo fare? They finished 2008 with the fourth-highest market cap in Japan, according to the Tokyo Stock Exchange. The number, 4.7813 trillion yen ($52.7 billion), is way down from where it was in 2007, but what isn't? A halved market cap actually sounds bad, and it probably is, but they're still in the top 5 companies, and still selling tons of systems and games, so it's probably nothing to worry about. First-place Toyota dropped 54% themselves!

[Via Kotaku]

Tags: market-capitalization, stock, tokyo-stock-exchange

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Mr Khan @ Jan 2nd 2009 12:24PM

Market capitalization: if the company was sold today, how much would it be worth?

Of course, that isn't what companies actually sell for. Traditionally you have to sweeten the pot considerably to stage an actual buyout or hostile takeover, like how EA bid up TakeTwo's value when they were trying to buy 'em

CJLopez @ Jan 2nd 2009 1:43PM

Hey nintendo, can you give me a 1/4 of a million of yens??? please???? its like spitting in my mouth with yer money. I don't think it'll hurt ya...

Bowser Rogozhin @ Jan 3rd 2009 8:12AM

I don't think market capitalisation means anything concrete in the business world. It's just a way to bamboozle potential investors into parting with their cash.

Hopefully Nintendo are saving money for the war chest, because I have a feeling the bubble is soon going to burst real soon. Next generation is going to be a real struggle for both the Japanese hardware companies, that's if Stringer even decides whether Sony enter a Playstation in the next cycle.