SoftBank Group

SoftBank Group Corp.
ソフトバンクグループ株式会社
Native name
 ソフトバンクグループ株式会社
Public
Traded as TYO: 9984
TOPIX Core 30 Component
Industry Conglomerate
Founded 3 September 1981 (1981-09-03)
Founder Masayoshi Son
Headquarters Tokyo Shiodome Building, Minato-ku, Tokyo, Japan
Key people
 Masayoshi Son
(Chairman and CEO)
Ronald D. Fisher
(Vice Chairman)
Products Internet
Investment
Semiconductors
Internet of Things
Artificial Intelligence
Robotics
E-commerce
Revenue ¥8.90 trillion (2017)[1]
¥977 billion (2017)[1]
¥1.42 trillion (2017)[1]
Total assets ¥24.63 trillion (2017)[1]
Total equity ¥3.58 trillion (2017)[1]
Number of employees
 68,402 (2016)[2]
Subsidiaries
Website www.softbank.jp/en

SoftBank Group Corp. (ソフトバンクグループ株式会社, Sofutobanku Gurūpu Kabushiki-gaisha)[4] is a Japanese multinational holding conglomerate headquartered in Tokyo, Japan. The company wholly owns Softbank Corp., Softbank Vision Fund (in Japanese), Arm Holdings, Fortress Investment Group, Boston Dynamics, and also owns stakes in Sprint (ca.85%), Alibaba (29.5%), Yahoo Japan (48.17%), Bright Star (87.1%), Uber (15%), Didi Chuxing (ca.20%), Ola (ca.30%), Grab, Renren (42.9%), InMobi (45%), Hike (25.8%), Snapdeal (ca.30%), Brain, Fanatics (ca.22%), Guardant Health, Improbable Worlds (ca.50%), Mapbox, Nauto, Nvidia (ca.5%), One97 Communications (ca.20%), Oravel Stays (42%), OSIsoft, PingAn Heath Cloud (7.41%), Plenty United, Roviant Sciences, Slack Technologies (ca.5%), Vir Biotechnology, WeWork (ca.22%), Zhongan Online P&C Insurance (5%), Compass (ca.22%), Auto1 (ca.20%), Wag (45%), Katerra (ca.28%), Cruise Automation (ca.19.6%), Ele.me, Getaround, Packet.[5] It runs the world's largest technology fund, Vision Fund.[6]

The company is known for its leadership by founder Masayoshi Son.[7] It now owns operations in broadband; fixed-line telecommunications; e-commerce; internet; technology services; finance; media and marketing; semiconductor design; and other businesses.

SoftBank was ranked in the Forbes Global 2000 list as the 38th largest public company in the world,[8] and the 4th largest publicly traded company in Japan after Toyota, MUFG, NTT.[9]

The logo of SoftBank is based on the Kaientai, a naval trading company that existed at the end of the Tokugawa Shogunate, and is meant to represent a "21st century" version of their passion for the enterprise. Resembling an equals sign, it also represents how SoftBank "has an 'answer' it can provide for customers and help solve the various problems the world faces," as well as "interactive communication and the unlimited possibilities of the Internet."[10]

History

Founding and early years

SoftBank bought COMDEX from The Interface Group on 1 April 1995 for $800 million, and ZDI on 29 February 1996.[11][12] SoftBank sold COMDEX to Key3Media, a spin-off of Ziff Davis, in 2001.

In 2000, SoftBank made its most successful investment ever – $20 million to a then fledgling Chinese Internet venture Alibaba.[13] This investment turned into $60 billion when Alibaba went public in September 2014.[14][15]

SoftBank store in Ibaraki, Osaka, Japan

On 28 January 2005, SoftBank became the owner of the Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks, a Nippon Professional Baseball team. On 17 March 2006, SoftBank announced its agreement to buy Vodafone Japan, giving it a stake in Japan's $78 billion mobile market. In April 2006, they bought a 23% stake of Betfair, an Internet betting exchange. In August 2006, SoftBank sold all its shares of SBI Group to a subsidiary of SBI's holding company, making SBI independent. On 1 October 2006, Vodafone Japan changed its corporate name, mobile phone brand name, and its mobile phone domain name to SoftBank Mobile, SoftBank, and [mb.softbank.jp], respectively.[16]

On 28 January 2008, it was announced that SoftBank and Tiffany & Co. collaborated in making a limited 10 model-only cellphone. This cellphone contains more than 400 platinum diamonds, totaling more than 20 carats. The cost is said to be more than 100,000,000 yen.[17]

On 3 February 2010, SoftBank acquired 13.7% in Ustream with the option to increase shares to 30% by July 2011.[18] On 1 October 2010, Ayumi Hamasaki became the commercial spokesperson.[19]

On 3 October 2012, the take over of competitor eAccess was announced, and was completed in January 2013.[20] On 1 July 2013, SoftBank announced that Willcom became a wholly owned subsidiary effective 1 July 2013, after termination of rehabilitation proceedings. eAccess was merged with Willcom, which resulted in a new subsidiary and brand from Yahoo! Japan, Ymobile Corporation.

Merchandise drinking mug featuring "Otosan", the SoftBank mascot

On 15 October 2012, SoftBank announced plans to take control of American Sprint Nextel by purchasing a 70% stake for $20 billion.[21] On 6 July 2013, the United States Federal Communications Commission approved SoftBank’s acquisition of the Sprint Corporation for $22.2 billion for a 78% ownership interest in Sprint. The acquisition involved payment of $17.2 billion in cash to Sprint shareholders, with the balance $5 billion as capital contribution. The transaction was financed by way of cash and a bridge loan from a consortium of banks.[22] On 6 August 2013, SoftBank bought 2% more shares of Sprint Corporation, increasing its ownership stake in the company to 80%.

SoftBank store in Sendai, with decorations for the Tanabata

In October 2013, SoftBank acquired 51% stake in Supercell for a reported $2.1 billion. Later on 25 October 2014, they invested $210 million in OlaCabs,[23] $627 million in Snapdeal with 30% stake in the company on 28 October 2014, and a $100 million investment in Housing.com with 30% stake in the company in November 2014.[24]

In 2014, SoftBank co-designed Pepper, a humanoid robot, with Aldebaran Robotics.

2015–2016

In 2015, SoftBank acquired DramaFever.[25] In May 2015, Masayoshi Son said he would appoint Nikesh Arora, a former Google executive, as Representative Director and President of SoftBank. Arora has been heading SoftBank's investment arm.[26] On 1 June 2015, SoftBank acquired additional 22.7% stake in Supercell, increasing its total stake to 73.2% and becoming the sole external shareholder of the company. In June 2015, SoftBank announced it would invest US$1 billion in the Korean e-commerce website Coupang as part of its overseas expansion plans.[27]

In July 2015, SoftBank announced the renaming of the company from SoftBank Corp. to SoftBank Group Corp. Meanwhile, SoftBank Mobile was renamed to SoftBank Corp., the now former name of the company as a whole.[28] On 16 February 2016, SoftBank announced they would repurchase a record 14.2% of shares, valued at $4.4bn, in order to boost investor confidence.[29] On 31 March 2016, they announced they would sell shares worth $7.9 billion of their stake in Alibaba Group. On 21 June 2016, SoftBank sold its 84% stake in Supercell for reported US$7.3 billion to Tencent.[30] On 3 June 2016, Softbank agreed to sell most of its stake in GungHo Online Entertainment (approximately 23.47%) for about $685 million, which would thus end Softbank's majority ownership of the company, resulting in Gungho no longer being an associate of Softbank.[31][32][33] The offer was accepted by Gungho and completed by 22 June, thus allowing Gungho to become an independent company.[34][35]

In June 2016, Nikesh Arora stepped down as president of SoftBank amidst pressure from investors. Board member Ron Fisher and Baer Capital Partners founder Alok Sama stepped in to manage Arora's overseas investment duties.[36] Just a month later,[37] Son announced the company's largest deal ever to buy British chip designer ARM Holdings for more than US$32 billion.[38][39] This acquisition was completed on 5 September 2016.[40]

On 6 December 2016, after meeting with US President-elect Donald Trump, chief executive Masayoshi Son announced SoftBank will be investing US$50 billion in the United States toward businesses creating 50,000 new US jobs.[41][42][43]

2017-2018

On 30 January 2017, the Wall Street Journal wrote that SoftBank Group was "weighing an investment of well over $1 billion in shared-office space company WeWork Cos., in what could be among the first deals from its new $100 billion technology fund."[44] On 20 March SoftBank bought a $300m stake in WeWork.[45] On 14 February 2017, SoftBank Group agreed to buy Fortress Investment Group LLC for $3.3 billion.[37] In February 2017, it was announced that Social Finance Inc. was close to raising $500 million from an investor group led by Silver Lake, and also including Softbank.[46] On 28 March 2017, the Wall Street Journal reported that SoftBank Group Corporation had approached Didi Chuxing Technology Co. about investing $6 billion to help the ride-hailing firm expand in self-driving car technologies," with the bulk of the money to come from SoftBank's planned $100 billion Vision Fund.[47] On May 18, 2017, it was reported that Softbank had completed its single largest investment in India to date, investing $1.4 billion in Paytm. At the time, Softbank was also working on a takeover of Flipkart's Snapdeal.[48] On August 10, 2017, Softbank invested $2.5 billion into Flipkart.[49]

On 8 June 2017, Alphabet Inc. announced the sale of Boston Dynamics to Japan's SoftBank Group for an undisclosed sum.[50]

On August 25th, SoftBank Finalizes $4.4 Billion WeWork Investment[51]

On November 14, 2017, Softbank finally agreed to invest $10 billion into Uber.[52] On December 29, 2017, it was reported that SoftBank-led consortium of investors had secured a $9 billion investment into Uber. The deal, to close in January 2018, will leave SoftBank as Uber's biggest shareholder, with a 15 percent stake.[53] The deal was secured after Uber shareholders voted to "sell their shares to the Japanese conglomerate at a discounted price." Beyond SoftBank, consortium members included Dragoneer, Tencent, TPG and Sequoia.[54]

On January 14, 2018, Softbank's Vision Fund announced to invest $560 million in the German used-car sales portal Auto1.[55]

On March 1, 2018, Softbank's Vision Fund lead a $535 million investment in DoorDash. [56]

In May 2018, CEO Masayoshi Son revealed during an earnings presentation that Walmart reached a deal to buy Flipkart.[57]

On September 27, 2018, Soft bank announced investment of $400 Million in Home-Selling Startup Opendoor.[58]

In September 2018, Saudi government officials announced a $200 billion plan with Soft Bank Group Corp. to build the world’s biggest solar-power-generation project.[59]

Business units

SoftBank's corporate profile includes various other companies such as Japanese broadband company SoftBank BB, data center company IDC Frontier, gaming company GungHo Online Entertainment, and the publishing company SB Creative. SBI Group is a Japanese financial services company that began in 1999, as a branch of SoftBank.[60] Ymobile Corporation is another telecommunications subsidiary of SoftBank, established in 2014. In 2010, SoftBank founded Wireless City Planning (WCP), a subsidiary that will see the development of TD-LTE networks throughout Japan.[61] SoftBank also operate SoftBank Capital, a US-based venture capital company. The COMDEX expo in the US was owned by SoftBank from 1995 to 2001. Since 2005, SoftBank also owns the Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks professional baseball team. SoftBank also operates in the eco-power industry through its SB Energy subsidiary.

Additionally, it has various partnerships in Japanese subsidiaries of foreign companies such as Yahoo! (which has resulted in Yahoo! Japan), E-Trade, Ustream.tv, EF Education First and Morningstar. It also has stakes in Alibaba Group and Sprint Corporation.[45]

SoftBank Corp.

SoftBank Corp. (ソフトバンク株式会社, Sofutobanku Kabushikigaisha) is SoftBank's telecommunications subsidiary, providing both mobile and fixed-line services. It was previously called SoftBank Mobile until July 2015, with the Group's merger of SoftBank BB Corp., SoftBank Telecom Corp. and Ymobile Corporation to reflect its new status of providing fixed-line and ISP operations.[62]

J-PHONE

J-PHONE store in Nagoya in 2003

The company was founded in 1981, as the mobile phone division of Japan Telecom under the name Digital Phone (デジタルホン). J-PHONE Co., Ltd. (J-フォン) was formed in 1999, by the merging of Digital Phone Group (DPG, three local companies) and Digital TU-KA Group (DTG, six local companies, not to be confused with TU-KA). Japan Telecom owned a stake of 45.1%.

J-PHONE grew steadily for a decade by continuously introducing new services and enhancements such as SkyWalker for PDC, SkyMelody ringtone download, the famous Sha-Mail picture mail introduced on the basis of camera phones developed by SHARP, the mobile multimedia data service J-Sky modeled after NTT DoCoMo's i-mode, and advanced Java services based on JSCL, modeled after NTT DoCoMo's DoJa based i-appli.

Vodafone

In October 2001, the British mobile phone group Vodafone increased its share to 66.7% of Japan Telecom and 69.7% of J-Phone. On 1 October 2003, the name of the company and the service brand was officially changed to Vodafone, with the division called Vodafone K.K. or Vodafone Japan. The growth and success of the company during this period is due in large part to then president Bill Morrow.[63]

However, in January 2005, Vodafone Japan lost 58,700 customers and in February 2005 lost 53,200 customers, while competitors NTT DoCoMo gained 184,400 customers, au by KDDI gained 163,700, and Willcom gained 35,000. While as of February 2005, DoCoMo's FOMA 3G service had attracted 10 million subscribers and KDDI's 3G service had attracted over 17 million subscribers, Vodafone's 3G service only attracted 527,300 subscribers. Vodafone 3G failed to attract subscribers because Vodafone cut back investments in 3G services in Japan in 2002/3; handsets did not fully match needs and preferences of Japanese customers. At the end of February 2005, Vodafone Japan had 15.1 million customers, and by end of October 2005, the number of subscribers had fallen by 103,100 to 14.996 million, while during the same period NTT DoCoMo had gained 1.65 million customers and KDDI/AU had gained 1.82 million customers. At the end of October 2005, NTT DoCoMo had 17.6 million 3G customers, KDDI/AU had 19.8 million 3G customers, and Vodafone-Japan had 1.9 million 3G customers, i.e. Vodafone-Japan gained about 4.8% of Japan's 3G market.

Vodafone changed the name of its multimedia data services from J-Sky to Vodafone live!, and used J-Sky's principles and technologies and business models to introduce the WAP-based Vodafone live! in Vodafone's other markets. Thus Vodafone live! has its origin in J-Phone's J-Sky. At the end of February 2005, Vodafone live! had 12.907 million subscribers in Japan. By end of October 2005 the number of Vodafone live! subscribers had fallen by 138,000 to 12,769,600.

In March 2006, Vodafone began discussing the sale of the Vodafone Japan unit to SoftBank. Vodafone was unable to satisfy customers, as Japanese users tend to have preferences not seen in other markets. Handsets had user interfaces that differed too much from the Japanese interface, and did not have as many features as competing companies. This led to the loss of more customers and Vodafone's decision that the market was no longer profitable.

SoftBank Mobile

Television broadcast on a 2007 Sharp phone on SoftBank
SoftBank Wi-Fi display with the company's mascot, indicating a place where Wi-Fi can be used

On 17 March 2006, Vodafone Group announced it had agreed to sell its holding of Vodafone Japan (Vodafone K.K.) to SoftBank for about 1.75 trillion Japanese yen (approximately US$15.1 billion). On 14 April 2006, SoftBank and Vodafone K. K. jointly announced, that the name of the company will be changed to a "new, easy-to-understand and familiar" company name and brand. It was announced in a press conference on 18 May 2006, that the new name would be "SoftBank Mobile Corp.", effective 1 October 2006. SoftBank started the rebranding around 14 June 2006.

On 4 June 2008, SoftBank Mobile announced partnership with Apple and brought the iPhone (3G) to Japan later in 2008.[64] SoftBank Mobile was the only official carrier of the iPhone in Japan until the release of iPhone 4S in 2011 when it became available on au by KDDI as well.[65]

Technology

SoftBank Corp.'s mobile network operates W-CDMA (UMTS 3G) network ("SoftBank 3G"). SoftBank's 3G network is compatible with UMTS and supports transparent global roaming for existing UMTS subscribers from other countries. SoftBank 4G uses TD-LTE / LTE. SoftBank offers 4G speeds of more than 110 Mbit/s. SoftBank Wi-Fi Spots are available almost everywhere in Japan.

Timeline

Vodafone store in Ikebukuro, Tokyo
A SoftBank mobile cell tower in Nakatsugawa, Gifu
  • 1984-10: JAPAN TELECOM was founded.
  • 1986-08: JAPAN TELECOM launches leased circuit services.
  • 1986-12: RAILWAY TELECOMMUNICATION established.
  • 1989-05: RAILWAY TELECOMMUNICATION merges with JAPAN TELECOM.
  • 1991-07: Tokyo Digital Phone established.
  • 1994-04: J-Phone starts PDC cellular service in the 1.5 GHz band, 10 MHz bandwidth.
  • 1997-11: J-Phone launches SkyWalker SMS service designed by Aldiscon and Ericsson for PDC
  • 1998-11: J-Phone launches SkyMelody ringtone download service
  • 1999-12: J-Phone launches J-Sky wireless Internet service ten months after NTT DoCoMo's i-mode, which was launched in February 1999.
  • 2000-11: J-Phone launches Sha-Mail (写メール) picture messaging service using the world's first camera phones developed by SHARP
  • 2001-06: J-Phone launches Java service with JSCL library
  • 2002-12: J-Phone launches W-CDMA 3G service for the first time
  • 2002-08: Company name was changed to JAPAN TELECOM HOLDINGS.The fixed-line telecommunications business was also separated to found a new JAPAN TELECOM.
  • 2003-10: J-Phone company name is changed to Vodafone K.K., and J-Sky name is changed to Vodafone live!. Vodafone launches a Japan-nationwide Beckham campaign
  • 2003-12: Company name was changed to Vodafone Holdings K.K.
  • 2004-10: Vodafone K.K. merges with Vodafone Holdings K.K. and company name is changed to Vodafone K.K.
  • 2004-10: Vodafone relaunches the 3G services in Japan a second time offering mobile phone handsets designed primarily for the European markets
  • 2005 summer: Vodafone changes management and relaunches 3G services in Japan a third time
  • 2006-03-17: Vodafone officially announced it had agreed to sell Vodafone Japan (Vodafone KK) to SoftBank for a total of 1.75 trillion Japanese yen (approx US$15.1 billion) in one of the largest M&A transactions in Japan to date
  • 2006-04-14: SoftBank and Vodafone K. K. jointly announced, that the name of the company will be changed to a "new, easy-to-understand and familiar" company name and brand. Masayoshi Son became CEO and Representative Director of Vodafone K. K.
  • 2006-05-01: Headquarters moved from Atago Hills to Shiodome to integrate operations with other SoftBank group companies.
  • 2006-05-18: SoftBank announced that the name of the company will be changed to "SoftBank Mobile Corp." effective 1 October 2006
  • 2006-06-16: SoftBank started rebranding "Vodafone" to "SoftBank."
  • 2006-10-01: Vodafone Japan company name is changed to "SoftBank Mobile Corp."
  • 2008-06-02: SoftBank Mobile releases iPhone in Japan beating NTT DoCoMo.
  • 2008-12-09: SoftBank Mobile joins Open Handset Alliance.[66]
  • 2009-05-15: SoftBank Mobile joins TransferJet Consortium .
  • 2010: Softbank purchased 100% of the PHS mobile operator Willcom.
  • 2012-05-29: SoftBank Mobile unveils the Pantone 5 107SH, a mobile phone with a built-in geiger counter.[67]
  • 2015-07: SoftBank Mobile was merged with SoftBank BB Corp., SoftBank Telecom Corp., and Ymobile Corporation to form a new subsidiary, SoftBank Corp., to reflect its new status of providing fixed-line and ISP operations.[62]

Marketing

Since May 2006, SoftBank's marketing and commercials have principally revolved around "Otosan sujan karki", the canine patriarch of the otherwise human "Shirason, "Kaito" family.[68] "Otosan" translates to father, and the character, a Hokkaido dog, indeed acts as the father of the family, along with the son "Kojiro" (starred by Dante Carver), mom "Masako" (Kanako Higuchi), and daughter "Aya" (Aya Ueto).[69] The advertising series proved to be highly popular: CM Research Center ranked the Otousan adverts as the most popular in Japan between 2007 and 2012, based on monthly surveys of 3,000 randomly selected adults in Japan.[70][71] SoftBank also has a partnership with the Ingress augmented reality game, supporting the branded "SoftBank Ultra Link" in-game item.[72]

Sponsorship

Softbank was sold a "team" for the America's Cup. The team was named SoftBank Team Japan, and Yanmar came onboard. SoftBank Team Japan raced in the 2017 races held in Bermuda. The team-members come from various backgrounds, most of whom are not Japanese.[73]

The company was the official jersey sponsor of the Japanese national basketball team at the official 2017 Asian Basketball Championship in Lebanon.[74]

Baby bonus

SoftBank, along with some other companies in Japan,[75] offer a baby bonus for employees who have children. The payments range from US$400 for a first child to US$40,000 for a fifth child.[76][77]

See also

Notes

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 "Investor Relations: Financial Results Highlights". www.softbank.jp. SoftBank Group Corp. Retrieved 13 August 2015.
  2. ↑ "About SoftBank: Corporate Data". www.softbank.jp. SoftBank Group Corp. Retrieved 13 August 2015.
  3. ↑ "Additional Purchases of Sprint Corporation Shares". SoftBank. 6 August 2013. Retrieved 30 August 2013.
  4. ↑ "Changes of Corporate Names". Softbank Group. 2015-07-15. Retrieved 2015-11-30.
  5. ↑ "Softbank Invests in a New-Age Cloud Company". Fortune. Retrieved 2018-05-11.
  6. ↑ Wong, Jacky (9 May 2018). "How Much Is the World's Largest Tech Fund Worth to SoftBank?". Wall Street Journal.
  7. ↑ "Masayoshi Son's $58 Billion Payday on Alibaba". Bloomberg.com. 2014-05-08. Retrieved 2017-12-11.
  8. ↑ "Forbes Global 2000". forbes.com. Forbes. 2017 Ranking. Check date values in: |date= (help)
  9. ↑ "The World's Largest Public Companies". Forbes. Retrieved 2018-09-26.
  10. ↑ "Origin of Brand Name and Logo". SoftBank Group Corp. Retrieved 2018-09-26.
  11. ↑ Andrew Pollack (1995-02-19). "A Japanese Gambler Hits the Jackpot With Softbank". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2017-12-10.
  12. ↑ Brian Caulfield (1 September 2003). "Worst in Show How Key3Media, the company behind the big tech trade show Comdex, went bankrupt". CNN Money. Retrieved 2017-12-10.
  13. ↑ Sender, Henny; Ling, Connie (2000-01-18). "Softbank to Invest $20 Million In Hong Kong's Alibaba.com". Wall Street Journal. ISSN 0099-9660. Retrieved 2017-12-11.
  14. ↑ Galani, Una. "Valuing SoftBank in Alibaba's Aftermath". DealBook. Retrieved 2017-10-20.
  15. ↑ Pfanner, Eric (2014-09-19). "SoftBank's Alibaba Alchemy: How to Turn $20 Million Into $50 Billion". WSJ. Retrieved 2017-12-11.
  16. ↑ ボーダフォン、メールのドメイン名も「ソフトバンク」へ──10月1日から (in Japanese). ITmedia Mobile. 2006-07-13. Retrieved 2013-07-02.
  17. ↑ 上戸彩：超高価ケータイ「ないしょにしてね」 (in Japanese). Sports Nippon. Archived from the original on 2008-01-30. Retrieved 2008-01-29.
  18. ↑ "Softbank profit soars; buys stake in Ustream", Japan Today, 3 February 2010
  19. ↑ Head lines, JP: Yahoo
  20. ↑ Santos, Alexis (2012-10-03). "Softbank to acquire competitor eAccess, expand LTE network by 50 percent". Engadget. Retrieved 2013-07-02.
  21. ↑ "Softbank to Buy 70 Percent Stake in Sprint: Sources". CNBC. Retrieved 15 October 2012.
  22. ↑ Soni, Phalguni. "The latest word in telecom". Market Realist. Market Realist, Inc. Retrieved 21 April 2014.
  23. ↑ "Olacabs raises $210 million from Japan's SoftBank Corp; enters b Club". The Times Of India. 25 October 2014.
  24. ↑ "Startup Housing.com valued at Rs 1,500 crore after SoftBank acquires 30% stake for $70 million". The Times Of India. 19 November 2014.
  25. ↑ J.T. Quigley (22 May 2015). "Post-acquistion [sic], DramaFever has more muscle to spread Asian entertainment to the West". Tech In Asia. Retrieved 22 May 2015.
  26. ↑ Martin, Alexander (11 May 2015). "SoftBank CEO Taps a Future Successor in Nikesh Arora". The Wall Street Journal. The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 11 May 2015.
  27. ↑ Ritsuko Ando (3 June 2015). "SoftBank to invest $1 billion in Korean e-commerce site Coupang". Reuters. Retrieved 3 June 2015.
  28. ↑ "Changes of Corporate Names of SoftBank Corp. and Subsidiary - Press Releases - News - About Us - SoftBank Group". Retrieved 7 December 2016.
  29. ↑ "Softbank reveals record $4.4bn share buyback". 16 February 2016. Retrieved 7 December 2016 – via www.bbc.com.
  30. ↑ "Softbank sells stake in game developer Supercell to Tencent". Yahoo! News. 21 June 2016. Retrieved 19 July 2016.
  31. ↑ "Puzzle & Dragons studio GungHo to regain majority stake from SoftBank for $685m". develop-online.net.
  32. ↑ "SoftBank to sell most of its stake in 'Puzzle & Dragons' maker GungHo". cnet.com. 6 June 2016.
  33. ↑ Execution of Agreement to Tender in Tender Offer for Shares of an Associate | Press Releases | News | About Us | SoftBank Group
  34. ↑ "Tender in Tender Offer for Shares of an Associate - Press Releases - News - SoftBank Group Corp. - SoftBank Group". softbank.jp.
  35. ↑ "Results of Tender in Tender Offer for Shares of an Associate - Press Releases - News - SoftBank Group Corp. - SoftBank Group". softbank.jp.
  36. ↑ Martin, Alexander (21 June 2016). "SoftBank President Nikesh Arora to Step Down". The Wall Street Journal. The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 21 Jun 2016.
  37. 1 2 Hoffman, Liz; Jenny, Strasburg; Sarah, Krouse (14 February 2017), SoftBank to Buy Fortress Investment Group for $3.3 Billion, The Wall Street Journal
  38. ↑ Wong, Jacky (18 July 2016). "SoftBank-ARM: These Chips Don't Come Cheap". The Wall Street Journal. The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 18 July 2016.
  39. ↑ Jack, Simon (18 July 2016). "ARM Holdings in £24bn Japanese takeover deal". Retrieved 7 December 2016 – via www.bbc.co.uk.
  40. ↑ Warren, Tom (5 September 2016). "SoftBank acquires ARM". The Verge. Retrieved 5 September 2016.
  41. ↑ Knutson, Ryan (6 December 2016). "When Billionaires Meet: $50 Billion Pledge From SoftBank to Trump". Wall Street Journal.
  42. ↑ "Trump: SoftBank to add $50B, 50K jobs in U.S." usatoday.com.
  43. ↑ USA today, Amazon to add 100,000full-time jobs in U.S. by ’19, Friday 13 January 2017, page B1/B2
  44. ↑ Farrell, Maureen; Winkler, Rolfe; Brown, Eliot, SoftBank Mulls Investment of Over $1 Billion in WeWork, New York City: Wall Street Journal, retrieved 31 January 2017
  45. 1 2 "Masayoshi Son goes on a $100bn shopping spree". The Economist. Retrieved 2017-12-11.
  46. ↑ Rudegeair, Peter (16 February 2017), Silver Lake, Softbank to Join New $500 Million Investment in Lender SoFi, New York City: The Wall Street Journal, retrieved 17 February 2017
  47. ↑ Wu, Kane; Negishi, Mayumi (March 28, 2017). "SoftBank Considers $6 Billion Investment in China Ride-Hailing Firm Didi". Wall Street Journal. New York City, New York, United States. Retrieved March 30, 2017.
  48. ↑ Mundy, Simon (May 18, 2017). "India's Paytm wins $1.4bn Softbank investment". Financial Times. United Kingdom. Retrieved May 18, 2017.
  49. ↑ Rai, Saritha. "SoftBank Fund Is Said to Invest $2.5 Billion in Flipkart". Bloomberg. Retrieved 12 July 2018.
  50. ↑ Lunden, Ingrid (Jun 9, 2017). "SoftBank is buying robotics firms Boston Dynamics and Schaft from Alphabet".
  51. ↑ Brown, Eliot (August 25, 2017). "SoftBank Finalizes $4.4 Billion WeWork Investment". The_Wall_Street_Journal.
  52. ↑ "Tech in Asia - Connecting Asia's startup ecosystem". www.techinasia.com. Retrieved 2017-11-21.
  53. ↑ Hook, Leslie (December 29, 2017). "SoftBank deal helps clear path towards Uber IPO". Financial Times. United Kingdom. Retrieved December 29, 2017.
  54. ↑ Hook, Leslie (28 December 2017). "SoftBank-led group to acquire $9bn stake in Uber". Financial Times. United Kingdom. Retrieved 29 December 2017.
  55. ↑ "SoftBank's Vision Fund Invests $560 Million in Auto1 Group". www.bloomberg.com. Retrieved 2018-02-01.
  56. ↑ "DoorDash is raising $535 million from SoftBank and others at a $1.4 billion valuation". Recode. Retrieved 2018-03-02.
  57. ↑ "Whoops: SoftBank CEO reveals Walmart has acquired Flipkart – TechCrunch". techcrunch.com. Retrieved 2018-05-09.
  58. ↑ Brown, Eliot; Kusisto, Laura (2018-09-27). "SoftBank Invests $400 Million in Home-Selling Startup Opendoor". Wall Street Journal. ISSN 0099-9660. Retrieved 2018-09-27.
  59. ↑ Jones, Rory; Said, Summer (2018-09-30). "Saudi Arabia Shelves Work on SoftBank's $200 Billion Solar Project". Wall Street Journal. ISSN 0099-9660. Retrieved 2018-10-01.
  60. ↑ Corporate history, JP: SBI .
  61. ↑ "SoftBank aims at 97% coverage for TD-LTE network, says CTO Yoshioki Chika - Global Telecoms Business". Archived from the original on 17 March 2017. Retrieved 7 December 2016.
  62. 1 2 "Changes of Corporate Names - SoftBank Corp. - Group Companies - About Us - SoftBank Group". Retrieved 7 December 2016.
  63. ↑ "Bill Morrow, Vodafone's turnaround guru, Walks Away". Cellular-news.com. 24 June 2006. Retrieved 9 November 2007.
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  66. ↑ "announces 14 new members". Open Handset Alliance. 2008-12-09. Retrieved 2013-10-15.
  67. ↑ Chang, Alexandra (29 May 2012). "SoftBank Unveils World's First Phone With Radiation Detection". Wired Magazine. Retrieved 29 May 2012.
  68. ↑ "Veteran actor Kai-kun retires from SoftBank Otousan role". www.japanhbvn nb nbvnbvvhjcgjator.com. Retrieved 26 March 2015.
  69. ↑ Griner, David (12 August 2012). "Meet Japan's Most Popular Ad Family". Adweek. Retrieved 21 June 2018.
  70. ↑ Corkill, Edan (29 April 2012). "Otosan, Japan's top dog". Japan Times. Retrieved 26 March 2015.
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  72. ↑ Shannon, Jonathan (9 July 2015). "Axa reaches millions of people through augmented reality game Ingress". Campaign.
  73. ↑ http://team-japan.americascup.com Archived 19 October 2017 at the Wayback Machine.
  74. ↑ Fiba Asia Cup 2017, FIBA.com, accessed 21 August 2017.
  75. ↑ Turner, David Japan offers baby bonus to workers 21 March 2007 Financial Times Retrieved 29 September 2015
  76. ↑ Cash for Kids: Japan's Employers Offer 'Baby Bonuses' ABC News Retrieved 29 September 2015
  77. ↑ A shrinking work force solution: Baby bonuses BusinessRecord Retrieved 29 September 2015

References

  • Annual Report (PDF), JP: SoftBank, 2008, archived from the original (PDF) on 19 April 2009 .
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