Quote:April 16, 2003 - Reports today from Japanese online news publication Nikkei indicate that Namco has approached Sega Corp. with a proposal for a merger between the two companies.
Looking to the future, Namco allegedly believes that joining forces with Sega would allow it to remain competitive in the videogame industry, according to the publication. Both Namco and Sega have a strong focus on home and arcade videogame development as well as amusement facility businesses. Additionally, intellectual assets would be combined between the two companies, meaning that such a deal could very well result in seeing our favorite Sega characters as guest stars in a future Soul Calibur title.

In its proposal, Namco reportedly has calculated estimated sales of nearly three billion dollars when combined with Sega, which would boost it to the number one position in Japan over Konami's current $2 billion sales total. According to Nikkei, the proposal also states that Sega would remain as the surviving entity, thus the Namco label would most likely disappear under the Sega brand. The entire deal could, if approved, be carried out as soon as 2004.

Today's news, though unconfirmed, could mark the second entity interested in merging with Sega, the first being Sammy Corp. of Japan in an announcement made last February. A possible third company has also recently expressed interest in joining forces with Sega, but in a more limited scope. U.S.-based publisher Electronic Arts is reportedly interested in taking a stake in Sega's software development operations and playing a financial role on the marketing side of things.

In response to this latest Namco proposal, Sega has called a board meeting for next Wednesday to discuss its options in merging with either Sammy or Namco, or in partnering with Electronic Arts in some capacity. A decision is said to be coming as early as the end of this month.

IGN will have more news on the current state of Sega and its ever-growing list of merger possibilities as it breaks.

Quote:Originally posted by N_A
Over at the PGC forums, they say the Namco webpage says the deal with Sega is official, and that in next year, the 2 companies will actually be acquired by another company. Speculation as to whether Nintendo will make a major move here or not is rampant there.