There is this story how Microsoft wanted/wants to buy Nintendo but was laughed out of the room. Is nintendo not a stock company? Couldnt Microsoft just buy 51% of all the shares? From what Ive seen the biggest shareholder is a japanese bank with 17%. Its not like somebody already owns the half.
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They could, this is called a hostile takeover. And it is possible that they have tried. The problem is that most shareholders are not willing to sell their shares. At least not at a price that Microsoft is willing to buy them for. This is why Microsoft was laughed out of the room. The ones who did laugh them out of the room are the ones who own over 50% of the shares, so they are the ones Microsoft have to buy the shares from one way or another.
They might be able to buy Nintendo piece by piece by offering to buy the shares from individual investors. Firstly on the stock exchanges where the most willing to sell are, but this is just a fraction of the total shares. Then various other funds and more “rational” shareholders. The bank you mentioned might actually be willing to sell their 17% for maybe 10-20% over the current market price. But then it becomes harder and harder to find people willing to sell their shares. Especially as it is known that Microsoft is buying all of it and is willing to pay a lot. So people will be holding out, either because they do not want Nintendo to fall into the hands of Microsoft or because they think they can get a better price either as Microsoft increases their bid or by holding on to the shares for another decade or two.
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