A Mistranslated Press Release in 2000 lead to the NY Times reporting that Nintendo was buying Sega

The story was enough to cause panic and confusion between shareholders and executives, and lead to both firms losing money on the Tokyo stock market. It prompted Sega to demand an apology from the NY Times...but it doesn't look like an apology was ever given. Here's the full story:

http://www.thedreamcastjunkyard.co.uk/2017/02/when-nintendo-bought-sega-how-simple.html

 

I remember seeing this and I seriously thought it was real to this day. Translation - proper translation - is a difficult business.

Actually, it seems that this was reported on in two Reuters stories before it was picked up by the Times. None of the links work in the Geek.com article though and I couldn't find the references, but it looks like multiple publications flubbed up big, or perhaps this really isn't the same rumor. The parts about Microsoft have been unofficially confirmed by a few folks so that may hold some water, but I guess we'll never really know for sure.

 

Wow just wow