What this is
Evidence that Nintendo put more than its $6.67m upfront share into Niantic: its ¥1.16bn cost implies about $9–12m.
How it’s built
- At $6.67m, ¥1.16bn would mean ¥174 per dollar, far outside any 2015–2019 rate.
- At ¥100–125 per dollar, it buys $9.3–11.6m: most simply the upfront share plus a third of the $10m milestone tranche.
What we assumed
- Book value equals what Nintendo paid.Write-downs would only lower book value, so the true cost could be higher, which strengthens the point.
- The purchases happened between 2015 and early 2019.Nintendo’s reports show the cost predates April 2019.
Sanity check
A small cheque into Niantic’s 2017 or 2019 rounds could also explain the extra; Nintendo’s reports for those years were not read.
Where it comes from
Our calculation from other figures in the trainer’s notes:
- FiledThe book cost of the unlisted stake Nintendo sold in the year to March 2026¥1.16bn
- ReportedEvidence that Nintendo bought the stake it sold in the year to March 2026 before April 2019
- EstimateNiantic cost implied jpy per usd by ticket hypothesis, October 2015 to 2016 (cost basis)
- EstimateHow Niantic’s $20m October 2015 round was probably split
Show the working
- ¥ per $ if cost 6.67m: 174
- ¥ per $ if cost 10.0m: 116
- $ paid at 100 to 125 yen: 9.3 to 11.6
- Extra beyond upfront: $2.6–5m
- 1,163/6.666667 = 174.4
- 1,163/10 = 116.3
Related figures
Built from this one