Nintendo tapped Mattel for Bandai shares

According to the Nikkei Journal, some of the Bandai stock that Nintendo acquired last September came from Mattel Corporation, the American toy company behind Barbie and Hot Wheels. The exact volume of shares that Nintendo acquired is not known.

Mattel originally purchased Bandai stock as part of deal between the two companies. Bandai and Mattel were recently engaged in a four-year contract in which Bandai distributed Mattel's toys in Japan and Mattel distributed for Bandai's toys in Central and South America. In September, Bandai announced its contract with Mattel would be ending at the end of the year.

Bandai's Mattel announcement was soon followed by a Nintendo purchase of 2.6 percent of Bandai, Japan's biggest toy maker and one of its biggest game publishers. The stock-buy sparked rumors of a company takeover with consumers expressing concern that Bandai games would no longer be released for non-Nintendo platforms.

Both Nintendo and Bandai have denied a corporate merger is in the works. However, some analysts predict that Nintendo will continue to purchase more Bandai shares in order to facilitate use of Bandai-owned characters in the merchandising of Nintendo game products.

As for the two major toy companies, Mattel will reportedly continue to distribute Bandai products in Central and South America after the contract ends and Mattel will continue to sell their products in Japan, but now on its own. Mattel's 2002 profits from sales in Japan were 5 billion yen (US$45.6 million), about half of which were from its Barbie franchise.