SoftBank

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SoftBank Corp.
ソフトバンク株式会社
Type Public
Traded as TYO: 9984
OTC PinkSFTBF
Industry Telecommunications
Founded September 3, 1981
Headquarters Tokyo, Japan
Key people Masayoshi Son
(Chairman & CEO)
Products Fixed line and mobile telephony, Internet services, digital television
Revenue increase US$ 29.57 billion (2010)
Net income increase US$ 1.03 billion (2010)
Employees 21,799 (2011)
Subsidiaries SoftBank Mobile
SOFTBANK TELECOM
Yahoo! Japan (~40%)
SoftBank BB
Website SoftBank English Website

SoftBank Corp. (ソフトバンク株式会社 Sofutobanku Kabushiki-gaisha?) is a Japanese telecommunications and internet corporation, with operations in broadband, fixed-line telecommunications, e-Commerce, Internet, broadmedia, technology services, finance, media and marketing, and other businesses.

SoftBank was established in Tokyo, Japan on September 3, 1981, and had a market capitalization of approximately US$43.52 billion at March 2011.

SoftBank's corporate profile includes various other companies such as Japanese broadband company Cable & Wireless IDC, cable company BB-Serve, and gaming company GungHo Online Entertainment. Additionally, it has various partnerships in Japanese subsidiaries of foreign companies such as Yahoo!, E-Trade, Ustream.tv and Morningstar. SBI Group is a Japanese financial services company that began in 1999 as a branch of SoftBank.[1]

SoftBank was the only official carrier of the iPhone in Japan until the release of iPhone 4S when it became available on au by KDDI as well.[2]

Contents

[edit] Timeline

  • 1995 - Bought COMDEX from The Interface Group
  • 1999 - Allowed organizers of COMDEX to restrict admission of media, creating a spiraling effect
  • 2001 - Sold COMDEX to Key3Media, a spin-off of Ziff Davis
  • January 28, 2005 - SoftBank becomes the owner of the Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks, a Nippon Professional Baseball team.
  • March 17, 2006 - SoftBank announces its agreement to buy Vodafone Japan, giving it a stake in Japan's $78 billion mobile market.
  • Early April, 2006 - SoftBank completed the purchase of 23% of Betfair, an Internet betting exchange.
  • October 1, 2006 - Vodafone Japan changes its corporate name, mobile phone brand name, and its mobile phone domain name to SoftBank Mobile, SoftBank, and [mb.softbank.jp] respectively.[3]
  • January 28, 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 diamond, totalling more than 20 karat. The cost is said to be more than 100,000,000 yen.[4]
  • June 4, 2008 - SoftBank Mobile announced partnership with Apple and brought the iPhone (3G) to Japan later in 2008 [5]
  • February 3, 2010 - SoftBank acquired 13.7% in Ustream with the option to increase shares to 30% by July 2011.[6]
  • October 1, 2010 - Ayumi Hamasaki becomes the commercial spokesperson.[7]

[edit] Investments

Company Date Amount
Yahoo! November 1995 $2 Million
InMobi September 2011 $200 Million

Yahoo! holds 40.16% of Softbank stock. [8]

[edit] Notes

[edit] References

[edit] External links

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