Would you pay 99 cents to make Super Mario jump higher? In an infamous 2014 letter to Nintendo, activist fund Oasis Management proposed that the company should make mobile games with just such a mechanic — something that might sound good to investors, but lands with a thud for players.
The idea has resurfaced recently as Oasis ratchets up a new campaign against Kadokawa, another Japanese firm beloved by geeks. With a nearly 14% stake, the activist has become the biggest shareholder of a conglomerate that produces anime, manga and video games. And at next week’s annual meeting, it is urging shareholders to get rid of Chief Executive Officer Takeshi Natsuno.
In arguing that Natsuno has underperformed, Oasis certainly has a point. With Japanese soft power booming, few companies are better positioned to exploit that interest than Kadokawa, with its vast IP and production capacities, most famously the Elden Ring maker FromSoftware. Yet business is sluggish, barely eking out a profit last year. It recently withdrew its midterm plan, replacing it with more modest targets.
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