和田洋一
Following the success of both "Final Fantasy X" and "Kingdom Hearts", the company recovered its stability and recorded the highest operating margin in its history in fiscal year 2002. It was announced on November 25, 2002, that Square and Enix's previous plans to merge were to proceed officially. As described by Yoichi Wada, "Square has also fully recovered, meaning this merger is occurring at a time when both companies are at their height." Despite this, some shareholders had doubts about the merger, notably Square's founder and largest shareholder, Masafumi Miyamoto, who would find himself holding significantly less if the two RPG behemoths were to go ahead with the deal. Other criticisms came from Takashi Oya of Deutsche Securities, who expressed doubts about the benefits of such a merger.