According to recently leaked documents from FTC's recent lawsuit case against Micorsoft, Microsoft had held internal talks as recent as 2020 regarding potential plans to buy Nintendo, Valve, and Warner Bros' gaming division in the future.
This was revealed in a leaked internal email from 2020 involving Xbox boss Phil Spencer outlining his plans for MS to potentially buy those two companies and acquire Warner Bros gaming division. In the documents, MS Chief Marketing Officer Chris Capossela responded back to Spencer being on board with the idea and saying "They of course have to be willing to sell… and they have to see us as a top company to sell to."
As part of these plans, MS would have used an outside investor that Spencer is close friends with who would purchase more ownership stock of Nintendo to open the door to MS to eventually purchase Nintendo.
Link:
https://www.resetera.com/threads/phi...rdware.765935/ ,
https://www.destructoid.com/leaked-c...intendo-valve/