Nintendo has been making headlines lately, although their appearance in the media has been frequently under unfortunate circumstances lately as their Wii U console continues to flounder in the market.

Now we have some very interesting information that comes straight from an interview Nintendo president Satoru Iwata had with Japanese outlet The Nikkei, where he said that Nintendo has not ruled out aligning with an external company. Iwata said:

“We should abandon old assumptions about our businesses. We are considering M&As (mergers and acquisitions) as an option. For this reason, we’ll step up share buybacks.”

That last bit explains why Nintendo made a $1.2 billion stock buyback, a move that increased their profits within the market by 8.2% percent per share.

Another very interesting statement that Iwata said was in response to a question regarding the company’s listing on the stock index:

“Quarterly earnings reporting is not a good fit for Nintendo. We don’t know in advance how much of a hit a product can be.”

Despite this very gloomy statement made by Iwata, don’t expect Nintendo to withdraw from the market and go private. Iwata had this to say regarding that possibility:

“But it is thanks to the stock market that Nintendo has grown to what it is today. I don’t want to turn to a management buyout just because we are inconvenienced now.”

So there you have it – Nintendo could possibly be buying out other smaller developers a la Square Enix, or could they possibly merge with a much larger developer/publisher?

What do you guys think? Who would make a good fit for a Nintendo acquisition or merger?