Sammy Buys Shares, Angling For Sega Takeover

cdneng2 writes "Following failed merger talks earlier this year, it seems like game developer/pachinko giant Sammy has made a bid to acquire 22.4% of Sega shares. Sega's former parent company CSK sold its shares to Sammy, Japan's largest pachinko machine maker, who also has a game development subsidiary. The article mentions: 'Sega managed to rebuff its most enthusiastic suitors [including Namco, possibly EA, Microsoft] in a determined effort to remain independent', but it seems their efforts may be failing. The piece also notes: 'Sega officials are believed to have been particularly unhappy about a merger with Sammy due to the shady image of the pachinko industry in Japan'."

Re:Better than Sony, Microsoft or Nintendo....

[edwdig]

If you don't have all 3 consoles and are a Sega fan, it would be better if they became exclusive.

Right now their games are distributed amongst all 3 platforms. Very few of their games come out on all three. So you need all 3 systems to play Sega games. If they were exclusive, you'd only need one system.

Not flaming, just uninformed:

[Elwood P Dowd]

According to this dude's travelogue in North Korea [1stopkorea.com], the majority of the Pachinko parlors in Japan are owned by Korean Japanese folks, and they send a bunch of their profits off to the DPRK. While the bulk of their money may go to basic human services, and I don't necessarily have a problem with this relationship, it's still interesting. Does anyone know if Sammy is one of these North Korea supporting companies? Does anyone know if they're sending money off to the Dear Leader, or how much?

Please, don't quote me on this. I have no idea if the above link is accurate or not. If someone else out there has any specific information, then I'll be a little more confident in that travelogue source.