Nintendo denies Microsoft offer
 

By Osamu Tsukimori, CBS MarketWatch.com
Last Update: 1:31 AM ET Aug 5, 2004

TOKYO (CBS.MW) -- Shares of Nintendo soared Thursday in Tokyo after Microsoft's Bill Gates reportedly said that the software giant is interested in buying the Japanese videogame maker.

Microsoft Chairman Gates told the German weekly magazine Wirtschafts Woche on the sidelines of a meeting with analysts in the United States. that Microsoft (MSFT) is interested in making an offer to buy Nintendo (7974) (NTDOY) if Hiroshi Yamauchi -- Nintendo's largest shareholder with a 10 percent stake -- and its adviser, were ready to sell.

"We are not interested in selling Nintendo to anyone and there's absolutely no such talk at all," said Nintendo public relations head Yasuhiro Minagawa. "There's no way Mr. Yamauchi would sell his stake."

The Kyoto-based company is developing a successor to its popular GameCube video game console.

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