Sega today announced that it has ended negotiations with Sammy regarding the two companies' proposed merger. It will now persue a merger with Namco. Nonetheless, Sega president Hideki Satou said that the voices calling for Sega to stay independent are deep-rooted within his company. As for the reasons leading to today's collapse of the talks between Sega and Sammy, Satou mentioned that there were differences regarding the merger's style and proceedings as well as how the new company after the merger should have looked like. Sammy president Hajime Satomi was a bit more concrete saying one of the main issues was the discussion regarding the merger-related stock exchange ratio. For the time being it was impossible to go ahead and Sammy would take a wait-and-see approach.

Namco stated that it has yet to receive a concrete reply from Sega and therefore has decided to withdraw its merger proposal. Nonetheless, Namco seems not uninterested in the merger, as the press release noted that if Sega should come forward with a new proposal, Namco would consider it in good faith.

• Quiter