Berkshire Hathaway's Charlie Munger considered acquiring Nintendo (NTDOY) during the Wii U era
Warren Buffet's investing conglomerate considered investing in Nintendo.
It's been over a year since legendary investor and Warren Buffet's best friend Charlie Munger passed away, but stories of his multiple decades of picking stocks continue to drip out as people revisit past interviews and acquaintances recount stories. On a recent episode of the Grit podcast, former Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick revealed an interesting nugget of news about Munger. Apparently, the second in command at Berkshire Hathaway considered acquiring Nintendo back in the Wii U days.
Here's an excerpt from Kotick's comments on the Grit podcast - Episode #229:
He goes, "You know, I was looking at a couple other companies in your sector. I think if we bought yours, we should buy that company Nintendo, too." He said, "Have you guys looked at it?" I was like, "Yeah." It was trading [at the time] at like 13 billion, with 7 billion in cash. He goes, "You know, I don’t think anything is gonna go really bad before I’m dead, and then if it goes bad after I’m dead, they’ll just chalk it up to the folly of an 82-year-old, so you don’t have to be so concerned about disappointing me."
While Kotick didn't specifiy when this discussion with Munger took place, it appeared to have happened during the Wii U era based on the discussed valuation of Nintendo. The Big N had fallen on hard times with three consecutive years of financial losses and a lot of pundits were certain that the Wii U's failure would be the end of the company as a hardware maker.
It seems as though Charlie Munger saw what very few investors did back in the early 2010s. Nintendo was a great brand valued at a discount for years, and the upside certainly appeared to outweigh the risk. Thankfully, Berkshire Hathaway didn't acquire Nintendo, which allowed savvy investors to generate over 600% returns in the stock over the past 10 years.
Despite being left for dead back in 2011, Nintendo's stock is hitting all-time highs in 2025 on the back of Switch's blockbuster success. The hybrid handheld home console has sold over 150 million units since it launched in 2017, and Nintendo investors who took the shot Munger ultimately passed on have been rewarded.
Nintendo still makes most of its money selling video game software and hardware, but the company has successfully expanded into amusement parks and films over the past few years. While the future may be somewhat uncertain with the upcoming Switch 2 launch, Nintendo's a much healthier company than when Charlie Munger was kicking the tires for a potential Berkshire Hathaway acquisition.
This article is only meant for educational purposes, and should not be taken as investment advice. Please consider your own investment time horizon, risk tolerance, and consult with a financial advisor before acting on this information.
Full Disclosure:
At the time of this article, Shacknews primary shareholder Asif A. Khan, his family members, or his company Virtue LLC had the following positions:
Long Nintendo via NTDOY shares
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