oh, i thought the sega namco merger went ahead, blimey

I thought that there was a annoucement from them both that they were merging. Maybe something else will be annouced at E3...

Didn't Sammy publicly attack and downplay Sega after the talks with Namco were revealed?

Edit: Ah, it's not so public, it seems, the exec was unnamed:
GamerFeed Story

"the move would make more sense for Sega, who also has stakes in non-videogame markets, as does Sammy."

Pardon my ignorance, but what else does Sega do besides Video Games (Arcade and Console, some PC)? Even so, Games are still Sega's bread an water (or Sushi and sake if you will) so what else can Sammy do for them? Unless they want to shift their focus....

A couple other dumb questions:

1) I'm gonna go on a limb and say Sammy doesn't have a strong presence in the U.S.A or Europe (Sega just recently opened a publishing department in Europe) So while it'd strengthen them in Japan (I guess that's most important since it is a Japanese company) what about overseas??

2)Aside from Guilty Gear, what else does Sammy do in the game department?

3)Wouldn't it make more sense to merge with a company that (unless it slipped my radar) is doing OK despite flagging economies? (Capcom was recently victim, as they are looking for someone to but them out.) That can offer longterm security not only at the home base but overseas?

Of course this is just my Western mind at work, and I admit to reading more Gamepro than I do Forbes or Nihon Keizai Shimbun. Maybe I should start....

CKE, which owns Sega is sort of like Vinvide (or what ever they are called, who owns Blizzard.) They run a restaurant chain, and venture capital firm, and other things.

Sega wants a partner that does well in Japan. And right now Sammy is better than Namco in this regards. I think Sammy makes stuffed toys (oopps that Tommy...)

I standed by my comments about the Sega and Namco Merger thread in the GameCube section, not believing it was true until it was reported on major gaming site.

It was somewhat telling though that they were going to hold off until they found out if the Sammy merger was going to go through.