Bandai Namco Holdings

Bandai Namco Holdings Inc.

Native name	株式会社バンダイナムコホールディングス
Romanized name	Kabushiki Gaisha Bandai Namuko Hōrudingusu
Type	Public
Traded as	TYO: 7832
Industry	Entertainment
Predecessor	Bandai Namco
Founded	Tokyo, Japan September 29, 2005 (2005-09-29)
Headquarters	Shinagawa, Tokyo, Japan
Area served	Worldwide
Key people	Shukuo Ishikawa Chairman, CEO Mitsuaki Taguchi President, COO
Products	Toy Anime Video game Amusement park
Revenue	¥565.5 billion[1] (2015)
Operating income	¥56.321B[1] (2015)
Net income	¥37.589B[1] (2015)
Total assets	¥441.764B[1] (2015)
Total equity	¥303.513B[1] (2015)
Owners	Japan Trustee Services Bank (5.14%) The Master Trust Bank of Japan (4.86%) XIL, LTD. (2.73%) Masaya Nakamura (2.71%) The Normura Trust and Banking Co., Ltd. 2.09% [1]
Number of employees	7.221K[1] (2015)
Subsidiaries	See list
Website	www.bandainamco.co.jp/en/

Bandai Namco Holdings Inc. (BNHD) (株式会社バンダイナムコホールディングス, Kabushiki Gaisha Bandai Namuko Hōrudingusu), also known as the Bandai Namco Group, is a Japanese holding company which was formed from the merger of Namco and Bandai on September 29, 2005.^[2] It specializes in toys, video games, arcades, anime, and amusement parks. The company's headquarters are based in Shinagawa, Tokyo.^[3] Their US branch, Bandai Namco Holdings USA, was officially formed on January 6, 2008, and handles the US operations of the company from their headquarters in Cypress, California.^[4]

The main business of Bandai Namco Holdings consists of the design and implementation of management strategies for the conglomerate and providing support for the overall business of its subsidiaries. It's task is to bring Namco and Bandai into one organized brand. Namco Bandai also supply various arcade machines to movie theaters and arcades across the globe.^[3]

Corporate history

Bandai

Bandai started in the 1950 as a toy manufacturing company in Japan. During the 1960's, Bandai expanded their business portfolio to include export sales. The 1970's provided Bandai with success through their racing car sets. Bandai established Bandai America Inc. in 1978 in order to have a sales and marketing distributor for western markets. By the 1980's, Bandai was Japan's leading toy company and consumer product licensor for popular franchises such as Power Rangers and Digimon. During the late 1990's, Sega expressed an interest in merging with Bandai, however, plans fell through for this merger due to corporal cultural differences.

Namco

Namco started in 1955 as a children's entertainment company in Japan under the name Nakamura Manufacturing. In 1958, They eventually expanded their business by manufacturing arcade machines, and through a company reorganization, the company was renamed to Nakamura Amusement Machine Manufacturing Company, through the acronym "NAMCO". In 1974, Namco purchased Atari Inc. Japan for $500'000 including liabilities. The purpose of this acquisition was for a capital injection for Atari Japan in exchange for Namco to be a publisher for Atari games in Japan. In 1978, Namco created a subsidiary in the United States in order to license Namco games to western publishers.

Namco's first debut into the video game industry was through a game called Gee Bee. Their second debut, Galaxian was the first video game to project RGB color spectrum. It was on their third arcade debut, Pac-Man, that Namco gained worldwide acclaim and pop culture relevancy, and as a result, made Pac-Man the definitive mascot for the company. Namco continued their success in the video gaming industry by contributing to the Golden Age of arcades and home console gaming with notable franchises such as Tekken, Soul and Tales.

Merger

Namco Bandai Holdings was created in 2005, when Bandai and Namco performed a management integration,^[5] 57% percent of the company's holding went to Bandai while 43% went to Namco. Furthermore, Bandai swapped one of its shares for 1.5 of the new Namco Bandai. Namco traded evenly with a one-for-one share,^[6] carried out via a share exchange. The shareholders of Namco received one NBHD share for each Namco share and the shareholders of Bandai received 1.5 NBHD shares for each Bandai share.^[2] Prior to the merger, Bandai and Namco had various subsidiaries that worked under them. After the merger of Bandai Namco, the respective Bandai and Namco subsidiaries were re-designated into different areas of the combined conglomerate.

Acquisitions and subsidiaries

In September 2006, BNHD acquired CCP Co., Ltd. from Casio and made it a wholly owned subsidiary.^[7][8] NBHD have since fully acquired developers Banpresto (whose video game operations were absorbed into Namco Bandai Games on April 1, 2008)^[9] and Namco Tales Studio since the merger. Formerly, both were partially owned by Bandai and Namco respectively. On March 31, 2006, Namco and Bandai's video game operations merged into Namco Bandai Games Inc. (NBGI). Namco's arcade and facility management continue under the name of Namco Ltd. The business of Bandai Networks Co., Ltd. was merged into Namco Bandai Games in April 2009 and Bandai Networks subsequently ceased to exist as a separate company.^[10] Namco Bandai bought a 34% stake in Atari Europe on May 14, 2009, paving the way for its acquisition from Infogrames.^[11] Until June 30, 2012, Infogrames had the option to sell the other 66% in Atari Europe to NBHD.^[12] Between June 31, 2012, to June 20, 2013, Namco Bandai gained the option to acquire the 66% stake.^[13] On the 7th of July 2009, Namco Bandai Holdings bought 100% of Atari Australia Pty Ltd. NBHD acquired 100% of the shares of Atari Asia Holdings Pty. Ltd. and 100% of the shares of Atari UK Ltd.^[14] These former Atari companies were merged into Namco Bandai Partners to handle distribution and publishing support in PAL territories, including contracts for other publishers' titles. Namco Bandai took over D3 Publisher on March 18, 2009,^[15] after first acquiring a 95% stake in the company.^[16] In August 2013, Namco Bandai opened a studio in Vancouver, broadening its reach for western demographics.^[17]

Organization

NBHD is organized into three Strategic Business Units, supplemented by Affiliated Business Companies that provide logistical support.^[18] The SBUs consist of Toys & Hobby, Content (video games, anime, and recording), and Amusement Facilities (theme parks).

Organizational history

The organization of BNHD has changed considerably since the merger. In 2007, NBHD consisted of 5 SBUs (strategic business unit) and the Affiliated Business Companies.^[19] In April 2009, the Game Contents SBU and the Network SBU were merged,^[20] and since April 2010, NBHD has consisted of three SBUs and the Affiliated Business Companies.^[21]

Toys & Hobby SBU

The Toys & Hobby SBU is mainly made up of the former Bandai's toy-making facilities and regional subsidiaries.^[22][23]

• Bandai Co., Ltd.
  • Bandai S.A.
  • Bandai UK Ltd.
  • Bandai España S.A.
  • Bandai GmbH
  • Bandai Polska SP.ZO.O
  • Bandai (H.K.) Co., Ltd.
  • Bandai Asia Co., Ltd.
  • Bandai Korea Co., Ltd.
  • Creative Works Co., Ltd.
  • Bandai (Guangzhou) Co., Ltd.
  • Bandai Taiwan Co., Ltd.
  • Bandai South Asia Pte., Ltd.
  • Bandai Industrial Co., Ltd.
  • Bandai (Shenzhen) Co., Ltd.
  • Bandai America Inc.
  • Bandai Corporacion Mexico S.A. de C.V.
• WiZ Co.,Ltd.
  • WIZ(H.K.)LTD.
• Megahouse Corporation
• CCP Co., Ltd.
• Seeds Co., Ltd.
• Plex Co., Ltd.
• People Co., Ltd.
• Sun-Star Stationary Co., Ltd.
• Fujiya Co.
• Tenyo

Content SBU

The Content SBU is responsible for all video game products, including games for home consoles, arcades, mobile platforms,^[24] and anime production and distribution. The bulk of these facilities are made up by the former Namco, also with Banpresto, D3 Publisher and the Sunrise anime production company, along with the following:

Asia

America

• Bandai Namco Games America
  • Bandai Namco Games Brazil
  • Bandai Namco Studios Vancouver
• Bandai Namco Online
• Bandai Entertainment

Europe

Oceania

• Bandai Namco Games Australia
• Bandai Namco Games NZ (New Zealand)
• Namco Bandai Studios Asia Pty Ltd in Sydney, Australia, formerly Infogrames Studios Asia Pty Ltd and Atari Studios Pty Ltd.
• Namco Bandai Melbourne House Pty Ltd in Melbourne, Australia, formerly Infogrames Melbourne House Pty Ltd and Atari Melbourne House Pty Ltd.
• Namco Bandai Partners Australia Pty Ltd in Sydney, Australia, founded as Ozisoft Pty Ltd in 1982, acquired July 7, 2009, from Atari.
• Namco Bandai Partners Asia Holdings Pty Ltd in Sydney, Australia. Former names have been Atari Asia Holdings Pty Ltd and Infogrames Asia Holdings Pty Ltd, serves as Namco Bandai's asset holdings company for the Asian region outside Japan.

Former subsidiaries

• Banpresto Co., Ltd. is headquartered in Tokyo, Japan. It was founded in April 1977 as Hoei Sangyo, Co. Ltd and acquired in April 1, 2008.
• Namco Tales Studio in Tokyo, Japan, it was founded as Wolf Team in 1986, and was fully acquired from Telenet Japan on September 29, 2005.
• Namco Networks America Inc.

Amusement Facility SBU

The Amusement Facility SBU oversees the company's theme parks and the management of its own arcades, most of which were acquired through the merger with Namco.

• Hanayashiki Co. Ltd acquired with Banpresto in March 2006.
• Namco Ltd.
  • Namco Entertainment
• Pleasure Cast Co. Ltd, acquired with Banpresto in March 2006.

Affiliated Business Companies

• Sotsu

References

External links

• Namco Bandai Holdings
• Namco Bandai Holdings (USA)