14 DAY TRIAL // Microsoft and Nintendo put down their differences on the console market and sat down to the negotiation table. The two rivals focused on perfecting an agreement that will result in Microsoft buying land from Nintendo. This is about the only way that the Redmond company can take over Nintendo's territory, given the performance delivered by Wii in comparison with Xbox and PlayStation. The land Microsoft will acquire from Nintendo is adjacent to the software maker's current Redmond campus. In this manner, Microsoft continues to expand its presence in Redmond.
A vacant Nintendo property of no less than 28-acre in Redmond will switch owner and be joined with the Microsoft Redwest campus. The parcel from Nintendo's North American headquarters is currently vacant. This has been one of the main arguments for Nintendo to agree to Microsoft's acquisition proposal. The Redmond company has not disclosed any future plans for the development of the new property. However, Microsoft is dying for some extra elbow room and this expansion of its campus will be welcomed as the company will leverage it to create additional parking space. Neither of the two companies made references related to the financial details, but the transaction is believed to be in excess of $20 million, reports SeattlePI.
Microsoft has moved to its corporate campus Redmond, Washington in February 1986, from Bellevue, a location it previously occupied since 1979. Now the company employs approximately 80,000 people, with over 45,000 just in the United States. And by buying the Nintendo land, Microsoft will evolve its current footprint in Redmond, by adding the 23 acre to the over 23 million square feet of space it is currently occupying. But while land acquisitions are going great for Microsoft, the same cannot be said about the console sales. Recent statistics from the Japanese market reveal that Nintendo Wii is outselling both PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. According to Financial Post, in June alone Nintendo pushed 270,974 Wii consoles, while Sony sold just 41,628 PS3 units and Microsoft managed to ship a modest 17,616 Xbox 360 items.