Tech Article 9/19

Hiroshi Yamauchi, Who Ran Nintendo for 53 Years, Dies at Age 85

Hiroshi Yamauchi, who ran Nintendo Co. (7974) for 53 years and was once ranked Japan’s richest man, has died, the company said. He was 85.Yamauchi passed away yesterday, Kyoto-based Nintendo said in an e-mailed statement. Yamauchi was the company’s second-largest shareholder with about 10 percent of the stock, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.The great-grandson of Nintendo’s founder led the company from 1949 to 2002, when he transformed a maker of Japanese playing cards into the world’s biggest maker of video games on the back of hits including Super Mario and Zelda. He handed the reins to current president Satoru Iwata as he moved into an advisory role for three years.After Yamauchi succeeded his father as president in 1949, the company was almost forced to file for bankruptcy in the late 1960s after several failed attempts to expand its product lineup into toy guns, baby carriages and even to fast food, according to several books written on Nintendo’s history.