i got this from the Gamespot forums
THE American electronics giant Nintendo is looking to sell its stake in Rare, one of Britain's most successful computer-games developers, which made Donkey Kong and GoldenEye.
Rare was started by Chris Stamper, a Loughborough university drop- out, in 1985.
In 1995 Nintendo took an undisclosed stake in Rare, thought to be 48%. It has been making games solely for Nintendo's N64 and GameCube platforms and reported a profit of Pounds 3.7m on sales of Pounds 64m for the year to December 2000.
Stamper still heads the company and is thought to pay himself Pounds 1.2m.
The industry has been rife with rumours that the two companies were about to relax their relationsip and last month two computer games publishers were approached by bankers.
They were given a presentation about the sale of Rare and a figure of $500m was floated as the asking price.
Both Nintendo and Rare denied that they were parting company and pledged a long future together.
Stamper said: "I think it is just a rumour. It is business as usual and we are totally committed to Nintendo."
A City source said this weekend: "One European publisher attended a meeting and received a document about the sale of Rare. That is a fact."
Companies in the running to buy the stake include Activision, Vivendi Universal, and Electronics Arts.
Source: rarenet.com
EDIT - rarenet.com doesn't work so i have no clue if this is real or not
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