Complete Name | Yamauchi Hiroshi |
Birth Date | November 7, 1927 |
Age | Death at the age of 86 |
Death Date | September 19, 2013 |
Nationality | Japanese |
Occupation | President and Chairman, Nintendo (1949–2002, 2002–2005) |
Hiroshi Yamauchi (山内 溥 Yamauchi Hiroshi, real name: 山内 博; November 7, 1927 – September 19, 2013) was a Japanese businessman. He was the third president of Nintendo, joining the company in 1949 until stepping down on May 31, 2002, to be succeeded by Satoru Iwata. Yamauchi is credited with transforming Nintendo from a small hanafuda card-making company in Japan to a multi-billion dollar video game company. He also became the majority owner of the Seattle Mariners baseball team in 1992, which is now managed by former Nintendo of America chairman Howard Lincoln.
As of April 2013, Forbes estimated Yamauchi’s net worth at $2.1 billion; he was #13 on this year’s Japan rich list and 491st richest in the world, having a net worth of approximately $2.5 billion.[1] At the time of his death Yamauchi was the second largest shareholder at Nintendo.
Yamauchi died of pneumonia at age 85 on September 19, 2013.