Cisco Eyeing Tivo/Nintendo for Buyout?

We've already covered Cisco's push into the home electronics market, but CNet is reporting that they may be planning even bigger purchases to come. The article speculates that Cisco may be planning on purchasing Tivo or Nintendo to add to their growing portfolio of companies. From the article: " Another possible acquisition candidate for Cisco is Nintendo, the No. 3 game console maker in the U.S. A stretch? Not really. Microsoft, which is emerging as a key competitor to Cisco in the home entertainment market, is already in this market with the Xbox 360. Gaming has already proved to be a strong application for broadband, so it makes sense that Cisco would want to own a game device to help drive more traffic on its network. With its popular GameBoy product, Nintendo would also provide Cisco an entree into the mobile-handheld market." Some commentary at GameDailyBiz, which finds it unlikely that Nintendo would sell to Cisco.

Nintendo stands strong?

[kefkahax]

Didn't Microsoft try to buyout Nintendo a while ago and get spit on?

Wont happen

[Bethor]

As someone who has been working in Japan for several years, in the game industry, I cant begin to explain how ridiculous this sounds.

Nintendo is a 107 year old company. It has been lead by the same family for generations, and their mployees are extremely proud. They were there before video games existed, and they most likely will be there long after video games are gone.

I am not sure if its a cultural thing, but the assumption that everything is for sale is quite irritating.

Re:Great...

[__aaclcg7560]

The requirement for that certification is to unpack the Nintendo and hook it up to the TV.

When I was working at Atari, every job applicant was asked if they knew the basics of hooking up a game console to the TV, and everyone said "yes" to get hired. (The same question was asked about working 80 hours a week, but that was a different story.) About half of them couldn't tell the difference between a coaxial cable and their rear end, much less where each one goes. I kept telling management that they should job applicants if they can program a VCR clock. That would've eliminated 90% of the applicant pool.

Driving network usage?

[peterdaly]

Cisco is all about the network.

Theory 1:
I bet small changes could be made to Tivo to make it much more of a video on demand box. These changes could be done in such a way that the Tivo is much more dependant on the network for it's content. High network utilization is good for Cisco.

Thoery 2:
They own Scientific Atlanta which (last I knew) is one of the major vendors of cable set-top boxes. Including Tivo in a set-top box would be good for sales I would think, even if it's just because Tivo has a good "brand."

Theory 3: (Theory 1 + Theory 2) = Theory 3.

-Pete

Logic of the situation

[1336.5]

OK Cisco provides networking hardware and IOS's to support certain features.

Why would Cisco buy Nintendo?

Well think about it this way. Time Warner is a HUGE customer of Cisco. Cisco acquired Scientific Atlantic which makes cable set top boxes. Humm then Time Warners network would be optimized with Cisco's hardware and TV/Cable controlled by Cisco's boxes.

Now combine this with Cisco's IPTV, and Network Virtual Private Storage Solutions and you pretty much have Video on demand over IP any time of the day. Throw a game console in the mix and you have diversified in to a game service niche, much like xbox live.

Thats just one reason.

Re:Nintendo stands strong?

[antifoidulus]

Nintendo will never sell outright I would bet, and I doubt that the Japanese business community would allow for a "hostile takeover" of a Japanese company. I was reading an article today that said in post-war Japan there has never been a successful hostile takeover. And with the whole Livedoor fiasco, I wouldn't bet on there being one any time soon.

Re:Cisco to buy Nintendo?

[xenocide2]

Well, certainly Nintendo would owe it to shareholders to consider any offers. Whether the Japanese investing market is given these considerations is another matter. I suspect the management of Japanese companies has considerably more power than in US chartered corporations. The fact that the DS is doing well and that Nintendo is turning a profit is only a sign that the company is valuable, not that it is priceless.

Even if Nintendo was in the number one spot, they'd still be the primary purchasing target, for obvious reasons. Sony and MS are simply to big to purchase. Infinium is simply 90 percent hype, 10 percent delivery. However, the company isn't a good matchup for Nintendo. Cisco would have to substantially be involved with the design of whatever next hardware comes out to make anything positive happen for either side. I don't know the Cisco culture, but I'd imagine there'd be some communication problems if they tried it.

I wouldn't be surprised however if Cisco purchased Alienware.

Real world example

[bstadil]

As dumb as it sound but something like this has actually happened. Michelin the French tire company realized that they would sell more tires if people drove more. So what did they do? They made a tour guide called Guide Michelin. [a9.com]

It had information that the driver needed but its reason d'etre (pretentious moi!) was the longer scenic routes that were offered as an alternative. While we are at it the early US car companies financed roads as well.

Re:If you can see it, so can Cisco

[Anonymous Coward]

If Tivo is actually that likely to win the trial, the stock market will already have factored this into the price.

You can't beat the market that easily...

Ah, ha. Ha ha. No. Not true. That's how the big boys want you to think the market works, but that's not how the market actually works. TiVo is heavily owned by major insitutional investors. They like the fact that the stock remains at a low value; they can acquire more whenever the stock dips in price. Stock traders like it too because they can constantly fleece the short term holders who get scared and sell low, and then fleece them again when they sell back to them on the high end of the curve. All that can continue to occur as long as the barrage of negative anti-TiVo FUD allows them to fool people about TiVo's long term prospects, ergo, the current stock price has not factored in a possible patent win for TiVo. Once TiVo wins, this particular form of stock price manipulation is at an end, and we enter into a new period of growth for TiVo. It's all about feat, uncertaintly, doubt. Hence, stock price often does not reflect the true value of a company, especially a new company like TiVo that has not yet proven its business plan.