International Business / The Pacific

Nintendo Earnings Jump 44%: The leading maker of video game machines said the surge resulted mostly from gains created by the weakening of the Japanese yen. Nintendo earned $560 million, or $3.95 a share, for the fiscal year ended March 31, compared with earnings of $390 million, or $2.85 a share, the previous year. The gain came despite a 15% drop in sales. Nintendo said much of the gain came from converting overseas earnings into yen once the U.S. dollar recovered. Sales suffered as a result of problems in supplying software for Nintendo’s popular 16-bit game machines last Christmas, which the company attributed to a worldwide shortage of memory chips used in the cartridges.