In an interview with the Sankei Shimbun, Square Enix president Youichi Wada talked about the recent acquisition of Taito and the possibility of future M&A (merger and acquisition) activities. Regarding Taito, Wada explained that it was essential for game companies these days to offer various windows to users from which they can play games. In addition to game consoles like PlayStation 2, the PC platform and cellphones, Square Enix aims to turn Taito's arcade and amusement facilities into such windows as well.

Wada also confirmed that further merger and acquisition activities were very well possible. While the merger between Square and Enix united two companies operating in the same business segments, Taito was also boasting a strong game center division. Hence the company decided against a merger with Taito and instead opted to make it a subsidiary. However, Square Enix was looking at integrating development teams working on console games to avoid duplication. Provided future merger and acquisition activities would take place, Wada favors the establishment of subsidiaries or holding companies, as they make the newly acquired enterprises easier to administrate.

The popularity of characters from established franchises like Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest also would make it easy to use them in manga or movies. The advantage of creating movies was the use of computer graphics (CG), since one can use those in both, the game and the movie. Because of this synergy effect, Wada also envisions the possibility of film studios acquiring game companies in the future.

• Sankei Shimbun