Yoichi Wada, the president of Square Enix, has said that the publisher needs to “go beyond traditional Square Enix."

Specifically, he was referring to mergers and acquisitions. Speaking at the Reuters Global Technology, Media and Telecoms Summit in Tokyo, Wada said, "Economies of scale and breadth of scope are getting important. It may be a business alliance or it may be us taking a stake in others, but we need to go beyond traditional Square Enix."

Wada continued, "We face competition not only from Japanese videogame companies but from game companies worldwide. We also see some new players from outside the videogame industry coming in."

Expansion is high up Square's agenda. Asked if Square is currently in talks, Wada said, "That's part of a CEO's job. That's part of our routine work."

The issue has been on his mind for a while now. Speaking in February, he pointed to acquisitions as key to Square's future.

While Wada did not outline an investment budget for Square, he did state that the company has the option to issue around 290 million additional shares without approval. "I'm not suggesting we are going to use up all that. But we have a capacity to do that."

Square isn't the only company that acquisition is important to, according to Wada. “I think every company is undergoing negotiations. We have dinners every night”, he said.

Of course, you don't have to look too far to see Wada's words vindicated. Electronic Arts extended its offer to buy Take-Two yesterday. Then, of course, there's the ongoing merger between Activision and Vivendi.

Since Square has such a strong foothold in the Japanese market and hopes to push simultaneous worldwide game releases, it seems likely that the publisher has its eye on the Western market. Feel free to post your tips for Square acquisitions in the Forum.

^{Source: Reuters}