Founder and chairman Bill Gates has expressed interest in buying game giant Nintendo should the company put itself on the market, reports German magazine Wirtschafts Woche. "If Hiroshi Yamauchi calls, he will be directly transferred to me," the magazine quotes Gates as saying at an unspecified analyst conference. Yamauchi is the former president of Nintendo and still owns a stake in the company.

"It would be a great investment," said Perrin Kaplan, vice president of marketing and corporate affairs for Nintendo. "We're a very successful company. But the bad news for Mr. Gates is we're not for sale."