News: Namco and Bandai Merge
Posted 04 Jan 2006 at 20:43 by guest
Namco and Bandai announced today that the two video game developers and publishers will integrate their North American operations to form Namco Bandai Games America Inc.
Integrating their North American marketing and development, Namco and Bandai have officially formed Namco Bandai Games America Inc. This comes as a surprise to no one, given that Bandai announced its acquisition of Namco in May of 2005 to its Japanese stock holders and was just a matter of time before their American based operations joined forces as well. You can see the official press release in its original and full context below.
"Namco and Bandai Officially Integrate In North America, Creating NAMCO BANDAI Games America Inc.
Joint North American Operations Now Based In Santa Clara, California
01/04/2006
Santa Clara, Calif., (January 4, 2006) -- NAMCO HOMETEK INC. and Bandai Games Inc. today announced that the integration of their two companies is now complete. The two companies are now officially known as NAMCO BANDAI Games America Inc. in North America. The company now operates out of the Santa Clara, California facility, formerly held by NAMCO HOMETEK INC.
Effective January 2, 2006, NAMCO BANDAI Holdings (USA) Inc. (formerly called NAMCO HOLDING CORP.) owns all of the BANDAI NAMCO Group US subsidiaries including Bandai America Inc. (Toy), Bandai Entertainment, Inc.(Visual/DVD), NAMCO AMERICA INC. (Arcade machine), NAMCO CYBERTAINMENT INC.(Arcade facility), NAMCO NETWORKS AMERICA INC. (Mobile games) and NAMCO BANDAI Games America Inc.(Video games).
"We are thrilled that the integration of the two North American entities is now complete and we are all now under one roof," said Genichi Ito, the new President and CEO of NAMCO BANDAI Games America Inc. "We are proud to be part of the new NAMCO BANDAI Games America family and look forward to a successful year ahead."
"The integration of our two companies has been a team effort over the last several months," said Naruo Uchida, who is joining from Bandai Games Inc. and now serving as the Corporate Planning Senior Vice President of NAMCO BANDAI Games America Inc. "We have worked together to fuse the many strengths each of our companies have to form one strong North American operation."
The integration brings together two of the most well-respected Japanese-owned interactive entertainment companies. With brands including Pac-Man�, Tamagotchi�, SoulCalibur�, Naruto and Tekken�, NAMCO BANDAI Games America Inc. 's separate brands now fall under one strong brand, with many new properties and offerings also on the horizon."
If you're interested in learning more about the Namco and Bandai merger, please refer to this news report published by Revo-Europe (at the time known as Cube-Europe) on May 2nd, 2005: "News: Bandai Namco Merger"
