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Nintendo of America to sell a majority of its interest in the Seattle Mariners.

E

emb

Member
Kinda sad in a way, but probably a smart move. They had nothing to do with Nintendo's main line of business. The purpose of Nintendo purchasing the team has probably been long since served and done. Also kinda sad to hear Lincoln is pretty much retiring.

None of this has any affect on me, just parts of history moving closer to the past.
 
M

Mortemis

Banned
All the thanks to Yamauchi and Nintendo for keeping baseball in Seattle. Good riddance to Howard Lincoln though. These are exciting times, after hearing that the new majority owner is a pretty big baseball fan, can't help but cross my fingers for hopefully something great.

Digital-Hero said:
I just want him to go in HOF as a Mariner after Edgar. (Edgar may never go in though. :( )
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Fuck the press forever if they never vote in Edgar.
 
P

Plum

Member
Just hope that money is put to good use. That is a seriously hefty injection of cash into the business.
 
N

Nanashrew

Banned
Wow, end of an era. Yamauchi pretty much saved the Mariners when they could not find new ownership and was done as thank you gesture to America in allowing him to do business here.
 
M

Mr-Joker

Banned
Make sense since Lincoln is retiring, plus Yamauchi only brought as a thank you to Seattle for being the home of Nintendo of America when the Mariners needed a buyer to stay in Seattle

Lime said:
Maybe they can donate the money to organizations that combat harassment of women online.
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Why on earth would they do that, heck why would you even bring that up?

Maintenance said:
Yamauchi, dead, made Nintendo more money than the Wii U probably.

Kidding, of course.
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Hmm not really as Nintendo opened their war chest to buy out Yamauchi shares from his family.
 
T

thefro

Member
Press release

http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160427005653/en/

REDMOND, Wash.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Nintendo of America today announced the planned sale of a majority of its interest in the Seattle Mariners to other members of the current ownership group. Under the plan, Nintendo of America will retain a 10% stake in the team, while the remainder of its holdings will be sold to other members of First Avenue Entertainment LLLP (FAE). FAE is the limited partnership that owns the Seattle Mariners, and a majority interest in ROOT Sports NW. Closing the transaction is subject to the finalization of legal contracts and approval from Major League Baseball which is expected in August of this year.

As part of the deal and at closing, current CEO Howard Lincoln will retire from day-to-day operations, and John Stanton will replace him as Chairman and CEO, and as the designated Major League Baseball Control Person. Lincoln will continue on as a member of the FAE Board of Directors, representing Nintendo’s ownership interests.

“From the first day of our involvement nearly 24 years ago, Nintendo has had two goals for its investment in the Mariners,” said Howard Lincoln. “First, we wanted to assure the permanence of the team in this great city. And on that count, I am proud and gratified that this agreement further solidifies that goal. On the other hand, I’m equally disappointed that we have not been able to host a World Series game for our fans.”

John Stanton said, “My goal and the goal of the entire Mariners ownership and management team is to win a World Series. I believe that the Mariners are well positioned to achieve that goal and it will be my honor to lead the organization. I want to thank Howard for his leadership for the last 17 years and thank the members of the board and ownership for giving me this opportunity.”

Specific details of the transaction will not be disclosed. A valuation of $1.4 billion for FAE’s holdings (team and RSN) was used as the basis for the sale. Nintendo of America, Howard Lincoln and John Stanton were principal participants in the negotiations.
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M

Mortemis

Banned
Nanashrew said:
Wow, end of an era. Yamauchi pretty much saved the Mariners when they could not find new ownership and was done as thank you gesture to America in allowing him to do business here.
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Yep. From what I've read the MLB treated him pretty shitty. Wouldn't let him be seen as the M's owner at meetings and such, and Lincoln was basically the relay man between the team and Nintendo.

Like it was brought up, there was a lot of bad sentiment about Japanese businesses in the '90s, like they were gonna buy everything.
 
P

PillarEN

Member
Nanashrew said:
Wow, end of an era. Yamauchi pretty much saved the Mariners when they could not find new ownership and was done as thank you gesture to America in allowing him to do business here.
Click to expand...

Mr-Joker said:
Make sense since Lincoln is retiring, plus Yamauchi only brought as a thank you to Seattle for being the home of Nintendo of America when the Mariners needed a buyer to stay in Seattle
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Wow I had no idea. It's kind of shocking to hear ol tight ass Yamauchi would actually do that. Never thought he woud be included in a feel good story.

I found it funny how he only saw like one Mariners game in his life (or did he?).
 
C

Captain Smoker

Member
PillarEN said:
Wow I had no idea. It's kind of shocking to hear ol tight ass Yamauchi would actually do that. Never thought he woud be included in a feel good story.

I found it funny how he only saw like one Mariners game in his life (or did he?).
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Yamauchi donated 83.000.000 $ to build a cancer hospital in Japan in 2010.

http://www.everybodyplays.co.uk/new...-nearly-and3683m-to-build-cancer-hospital/125


Back in 2006 he donated around 50.000.000 $ for a hospital in Kyoto.

http://www.n-sider.com/contentview.php?contentid=2219
 
V

Voysa Reezun

Banned
Thank you to Yamauchi for saving baseball in Seattle by purchasing them back in the '90s.

This really feels like the end of an era in many ways, even if the Mariners are a mostly-bad franchise and Howard Lincoln flailed about as CEO.
 
A

Azuran

Banned
Now the Braves just need to sell their sorry excuse of a team to someone else so the Blue Jays can have the distinction of being the only team under corporate ownserwhip.
 
P

PillarEN

Member
S

Shizza

Member
I wonder if they're intending on using the cash from the sale to purchase more studios? Maybe more R&D? Something else?
 
S

samsirus

Neo Member
Jon Arbuckle said:
So glad we're saying goodbye to that worthless CEO Howard Lincoln. It was always a curiosity that Nintendo owned a large chunk of the team, but it didn't really benefit the club in terms of putting a winning team on the field. I'm hoping we're seeing a renaissance for the Mariners. New CEO, new manager, new coach all will hopefully result in an amazing new look for the club.
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This right here, praise the sun!

Digital-Hero said:
I just want him to go in HOF as a Mariner after Edgar. (Edgar may never go in though. :( )
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He had a good bump in 2016 voting so maybe just another year or so. I forgot how long eligibility lasts.

2010 BBWAA (36.2%)
2011 BBWAA (32.9%)
2012 BBWAA (36.5%)
2013 BBWAA (35.9%)
2014 BBWAA (25.2%)
2015 BBWAA (27.0%)
2016 BBWAA (43.4%)
 
I

InspectorSpaceman

Neo Member
Rules were changed recently that you can appear on the ballot 10 times, down from 15. ONly people who were at 10 or more are grandfathered in.

So Edgar only has 3 more chances to reach the 75% mark for election.
 
element

element

Member
The $1.4 evaluation is the Seattle Mariners and ROOT Sports NW which the Mariners purchased a majority stake in last year.

If anything, this was going to happen at some point with the passing of Hiroshi Yamauchi who became the majority investor in the local group to keep the Mariners in Seattle as a gift to the people of Seattle. Upon his death his ownership was transferred to Nintendo of America. I think with the passing of Satoru Iwata and increasing age of Howard Lincoln probably pushed this forward as well.

As a life long Mariners fan, I'm eternal grateful to Yamauchi and the other owners to keep the team in Seattle. The last 10 years have been tough and Howard Lincoln has been the scapegoat for many fans. So it will be nice to have a new chairman.
 
M

Marky Mark

Member
RBH said:
ken-griffey-jr.jpg
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Collector Baseball Card!!

griffeyjr-89ud-simpsons.jpg
 
M

M2C3

Neo Member
As someone who has watched the Mariners for the last 20+ years, I hope something good comes from this. The M's have a certain curse (look up Trumbo's stats this year and compare them to when he was on the M's last year) so maybe, just maybe this will put a stake through the curse's heart. I'm not holding my breath but this is a positive for both sides of the equation. Maybe once we get a playoff caliber team, the people of Seattle will stop considering the M's a second class citizen. Or Stanton will relocate them. Who knows.

(lots of maybe's because M's)

Edit: I do want to thank the late Hiroshi Yamauchi for keeping the M's in Seattle. My childhood was spent on and off the ball field because of the M's and being able to watch a baseball team on TV
 
SinCityAssassin

SinCityAssassin

Member
Just reminding people that Howard Lincoln is STILL going to be on the board. Nintendo retaining a 10% interest means he's there to in order to have their interests in mind for the franchise.
 
C

Colby

Member
Interesting timing. MLB, while not on NFL levels, is still hugely popular and hugely successful. MLBAM is a budding juggernaut, streaming MLB games and branching out into other areas, such as WWE Network and PGA. MLBAM is partnering with NHL to stream their games, too. All 30 MLB teams get a cut of MLBAM's revenues, so I assume Nintendo was getting some of that.

However, MLB revenues (as with most sports) are intricately connected to cable providers (as sports are essentially DVR-proof -- the vast majority of fans want to catch games live). There's a concern that as consumers cut the cord to their cable boxes (because of Netflix, Hulu, etc), the cable revenue bubble will burst. Maybe Nintendo was pessimistic about that bubble and wanted to cash out before it popped. Then again, maybe they just felt it was time to add that enormous amount of money to their war chest, setting themselves up for a gigantic NX launch. I mean, that'll pay for some advertisements, right? Plus, 2016 is looking to be one of the worst financial years in recent memory, so maybe this sale is necessary for the company's well being.

I don't think it's related to the actual product on the field. The Mariners brought in an excellent GM (DiPoto) who is righting the ship and should keep the team competitive for awhile.
 
element

element

Member
so I assume Nintendo was getting some of that.
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They actually announced that the ownership group has never pulled from the profits and only reinvested them into the team.

However, MLB revenues (as with most sports) are intricately connected to cable providers (as sports are essentially DVR-proof -- the vast majority of fans want to catch games live). There's a concern that as consumers cut the cord to their cable boxes (because of Netflix, Hulu, etc), the cable revenue bubble will burst.
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Most MLB teams have started to invest or own their regional sports network. If you look at what the Dodgers did with TimeWarner and what the Mariners did buying majority in ROOT NW, it dramatically increases your revenue while not technically being part of MLB CBA, so not part of revenue sharing.

Love all the conspiracy theories, but even the last two years you can see that Howard Lincoln is getting MUCH older needed to enjoy retirement. Since he was the only connection to Yamauchi (seriously, none of the other 17 owners ever met the guy), it only makes sense that Nintendo divests.
 
H

Hero of Legend

Member
Kimishima himself talked about this just now:

https://www.nintendo.co.jp/ir/en/library/events/160428/06.html (at the bottom)

Finally, about three hours ago, at Safeco Field which is the home for the MLB's Seattle Mariners, Mr. Howard Lincoln, who is the CEO of the team and a board member of Nintendo of America Inc., announced the planned sale of its majority interest in the Seattle Mariners to other members of the team’s current ownership group. An agreement has been reached that Nintendo of America will retain a 10% stake in the team, while the remainder of its holdings will be sold to other members of First Avenue Entertainment LLLP, namely, to other existing minority owners of the team. First Avenue Entertainment LLLP is the limited partnership that owns the Seattle Mariners, and a majority interest in ROOT Sports NW. Closing the transaction is subject to the finalization of legal contracts and approval from Major League Baseball which is expected in August of this year. We will then close the sale and Mr. Lincoln will resign as the Mariners CEO.

As many of you know, Nintendo of America Inc., which is headquartered in the Seattle area, was approached by local representatives in the early 1990s and invited to invest in the team, which was at risk of being moved away from the region. The late Hiroshi Yamauchi, at that time the president of Nintendo Co., Ltd., agreed to spend his own money to purchase the majority ownership of the team in order to show Nintendo’s appreciation to the U.S. for helping Nintendo do business in the country, and to contribute to the local residents and area. He became the principal owner of the team in 1992.

Mr. Yamauchi passed away in 2013. Due consideration had been made before his death and his ownership had already been transferred to Nintendo of America in order to ensure the team would remain in the area. Then Mr. Satoru Iwata, who had been overseeing the team as the new president of Nintendo after Mr. Yamauchi, as well serving as the CEO of Nintendo of America, passed away last year. This sad occurrence, along with Mr. Lincoln’s desire to relinquish day-to-day leadership for the team, prompted this decision.

As president and, then, the chairman of Nintendo of America, I personally observed the great efforts and contributions that Mr. Lincoln made during the past 17 years as the team’s CEO and the chairman. He worked to keep the team within the region and generated continued support from local residents. He has been a very reliable partner for me especially on the business affairs concerning the Mariners even after I returned to Japan and started working at Nintendo Co., Ltd. Now that Mr. Yamauchi and Mr. Iwata have passed away, and Mr. Lincoln has shown his desire to retire as CEO of the team, and especially because we can be now certain that the team will remain in the region and can grow, Nintendo of America has negotiated a sale of its majority interest to the current minority owners.

Since the subject sales profit has not been incorporated into the annual financial forecast we announced yesterday, if and when the sales contract is executed and approved by MLB, we will make the appropriate timely disclosure such as modifying the financial forecast. For your information, we will negotiate the deal by assuming the comprehensive asset value of First Avenue Entertainment LLLP as being 1.4 billion U.S. dollars.

Although Mr. Howard Lincoln will remain as a board member of the team and of Nintendo of America after his retirement from the CEO of the Seattle Mariners, I would like to take this opportunity to express my great appreciation for his shouldering and carrying out the huge responsibilities for both Nintendo and the Seattle Mariners, and for his splendid leadership.

Thank you.
Click to expand...
 
P

Persona7

Banned
this is dumb but I remember my friend live streaming the weird DS app they have there where you can order food and stuff. It was cool
 
Bobs Big Boy

Bobs Big Boy

Member
Used to feel a lot more brand integration.

And baseball videogames featured around Safeco (or was it Kingdome)?

Too bad Nintendo is not making a baseball videogames. They made some interesting ones.
 
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