WIRE REPORTS

Hindustan Times Yahoo chairman exits, review drags on Hindustan Times Under a "cash rich split" plan being discussed, Yahoo would effectively transfer most of its 40 percent slice of Alibaba back to the Chinese company and all of its stake in Yahoo Japan to Softbank Corp in return for cash and assets, sources have told ... and more » Greenpeace scorecard documents greener enterprise offerings PC Advisor But that's not in the IT sector's interest. It has a lot of money that could be made with a transition to a more efficient economy." One notable exception is the Japanese mobile company Softbank, whose CEO called for Japan to move to renewable sources ... and more » Yahoo! Chairman Exits, Review Drags On VC Circle Japan to Softbank Corp in return for cash and assets, sources have told Reuters. Yahoo! had also entertained separate proposals from private equity firms TPG and Silver Lake about minority investments in the company, but those offers fell short of ... and more » Greenpeace scorecard documents greener enterprise offerings Network World But that's not in the IT sector's interest. It has a lot of money that could be made with a transition to a more efficient economy." One notable exception is the Japanese mobile company Softbank, whose CEO called for Japan to move to renewable sources ... and more » Greenpeace scorecard documents greener enterprise offerings CIO Magazine One notable exception is the Japanese mobile company Softbank, whose CEO called for Japan to move to renewable sources of energy after the Fukushima nuclear disaster in April. Join the CIO Australia group on LinkedIn. The group is open to CIOs, ... and more » Greenpeace scorecard documents greener enterprise offerings ITworld.com But that's not in the IT sector's interest. It has a lot of money that could be made with a transition to a more efficient economy." One notable exception is the Japanese mobile company Softbank, whose CEO called for Japan to move to renewable sources ... and more » Greenpeace scorecard documents greener enterprise offerings Good Gear Guide But that's not in the IT sector's interest. It has a lot of money that could be made with a transition to a more efficient economy." One notable exception is the Japanese mobile company Softbank, whose CEO called for Japan to move to renewable sources ... and more » GreenBiz.com Greenpeace's Cool IT Leaderboard, Version 5: Feb. 2012 GreenBiz.com A notable exception to this trend is Softbank (a new addition to the Leaderboard in Version 5), which has spoken up loud and long in calling for a transition away from nuclear power to renewable energy in Japan post Fukushima, and scoring the highest ... and more » GreenBiz.com (blog) Greenpeace Puts Google, Cisco, Fujitsu at Top of Green IT Rankings GreenBiz.com (blog) Greenpeace offers effusive praise for Softbank, a Japanese telecom and internet company making its first appearance on the Leaderboard. The company, which scored 38 out of 100, dominated the Policy Advocacy section of the leaderboard with 33 out of 35 ... and more » Greenpeace Scorecard Documents Greener Enterprise Offerings PCWorld But that's not in the IT sector's interest. It has a lot of money that could be made with a transition to a more efficient economy." One notable exception is the Japanese mobile company Softbank, whose CEO called for Japan to move to renewable sources ... and more »

DAILY REPORTS

Feb 3 NHK to sell relay stations to Softbank NHK is in talks to sell some 1,050 analog broadcasting relay stations it no longer uses to Softbank Mobile Corp., sources said. The mobile phone service provider will use the stations - rendered obsolete by the nationwide switch to digital broadcasting last July - mostly as cell towers in mountainous areas because of complaints about reception in rural areas, the sources said Thursday. By improving its network, the carrier hopes to gain an advantage in the competition for radio bands for next-generation, high-speed data communications that might be allocated by the Internal Affairs and Communications Ministry later this month, they added. (Japan Times) Feb 2 E-book apps found 'stealing' private user info What kind of electronic books do smartphone users prefer? When and how much of each book are they reading? Some smartphone e-book applications have collected this sensitive information for developers without obtaining permission from users, according to sources. The e-book market has been rapidly expanding, and is expected to grow to 200 billion yen in three years. Therefore, experts are calling for clear guidelines on how e-book software should handle smartphone users' private information, as it can reveal their thoughts and beliefs. Viewn, an application provided by the SoftBank group, features 42 items, including magazines, newspapers and television programs. Since June 2010, the software collected identification data of smartphones that had installed the app, as well as kept records on items viewed by users--without first obtaining user permission. Furthermore, in September, the app began collecting users' names and e-mail addresses. (Yomiuri) Jan 26 Yahoo Japan in talks with parent over stake sale Yahoo Japan in talks with parent over stake sale By Juro Osawa, Dow Jones Newswires Wednesday 25 January 2012 Japanese Internet firm reported 2.7% increase in quarterly net profit on back of higher advertising revenue. Yahoo Japan Corp. said Wednesday it is in talks with Yahoo Inc. on how the latter can sell its stake in the Japanese company, worth over $6 billion by market value, without paying hefty taxes, in one of the most public comments yet about potential share dealings at the struggling U.S. Internet giant. "Yahoo Inc. is still trying to finalize the mechanism (for offloading its stake) and we are cooperating with them," said Yahoo Japan's Chief Financial Officer Akira Kajikawa at a press conference. Yahoo Inc. owns a nearly 35% stake in Yahoo Japan, while Japanese mobile and Internet service firm Softbank Corp. owns a 42% stake. (totaltele.com) Dec 29 Softbank to release record-long TV ad featuring 'White Family' Japanese cell phone giant Softbank Mobile will release a record-long 5-minute, 30-second-long television commercial featuring the "White Family" - the multiracial, multispecie nuclear family that has driven Softbank ad campaigns for several years. The commercial, titled "Letters from Space," depict the family father - a white, talking dog - trying to fulfill his dream of space travel. The ad also features astronaut Satoshi Furukawa, as well as actresses Aya Ueto and Kanako Higuchi. (Japan Today) Dec 22 Softbank to quit on Myspace in Japan: report Softbank Corp will quit its domestic social networking site business after just five years, liquidating a joint venture with Rupert Murdoch's News Corp for the Japanese-language version of Myspace, the Nikkei business daily reported. The 50-50 joint venture with U.S. media group News Corp will shut down at the end of January and be liquidated, the Nikkei reported. The Japanese-language service will be taken over by U.S. firm Myspace LLC, the newspaper added. News Corp acquired Myspace for $580 million in 2005, when it was among the world's most popular websites, and the company's success in beating out rival Viacom Inc in a bidding war was viewed as a major victory for Murdoch. (Reuters) Dec 17 Softbank's Son named best corporate president of 2011 Masayoshi Son, chairman and chief executive officer of Softbank Corp., was chosen best president of 2011 for the second consecutive year in an online survey of corporate executives in Japan, the Sanno Institute of Management said Thursday. Son collected 140 votes, or about 30 percent of the total, for his generous donation to victims of the March 11 disasters and for other related activities. He was also lauded for his charisma and plebeian image, the college said. The survey was conducted by an Internet research firm between Nov. 25 and Dec. 5 and received valid replies from 456 of 541 executives at companies with at least 10 employees. (Japan Times) Dec 12 Softbank star in driver's license flap Tokyo police said Monday they have turned over to prosecutors their case against actor/model Dante Carver, 34, a frequent character on Softbank Corp.'s mobile phone commercials, for allegedly driving with an invalid international driver's license. Carver is known as "oni-chan" (elder brother) on the popular family TV commercials. The police confirmed a Kyodo News report that officers from Meguro Police Station pulled the New Yorker over after he executed an illegal U-turn in Shibuya Ward on July 2, and then presented an international driver's license that they determined to be invalid under the Road Traffic Law. (Japan Times) Nov 22 Has the iPhone 4S finally gained traction in Japan? The iPhone had a very lukewarm reception when it was initially brought over to Japan, and failed to gather much popularity. Unlike it's contemporaries it didn't have the multimedia focus, video camera or tv-tuner they were accustomed to with their own brands. The iPhone 4S has changed that trend completely, with record amounts of sales propelling the smartphone to the height of fashion and popularity. Even though there were a few hitches with the launch, the iPhone 4S has been a huge success for the two major networks that support it - Softbank, and KDDI - making them serious competitors for market leader NTT Docomo. (ZDNet) Nov 21 DoCoMo to spend on networks NTT DoCoMo Inc., the nation's biggest mobile-phone carrier by subscribers, aims to keep boosting operating profit by curbing overall spending as two smaller rivals add more customers by offering Apple Inc.'s iPhone. The company plans to maintain annual spending at about ¥700 billion in the four years starting next fiscal year, Chief Financial Officer Kazuto Tsubouchi said in an interview Friday. More of that will be spent building faster networks to compete with KDDI Corp. and Softbank Corp., he said. (Japan Times) Nov 20 Baseball: Hawks win Japan Series with 3-0 shutout of Dragons in game 7 The Softbank Hawks shut out the Chunichi Dragons 3-0 in the decisive seventh game of the Japan Series at Yahoo Dome in Fukuoka on Sunday night. The victory was the first by a home team in the series, and it gave the Hawks their first Nippon Professional Baseball title since 2003. Softbank opened the scoring in the bottom of the third inning on shortstop Munenori Kawasaki's bases loaded walk off Dragons reliever Masato Kobayashi. Catcher Katsuki Yamazaki added an RBI single in the fourth, and left fielder Seiichi Uchikawa completed the scoring with a two-out RBI single in the seventh. (Japan Today) Nov 17 Competition grows fierce as Japan's Softbank vies for new 900MHz spectrum Things are heating up in Japan over the allocation next year of new 700MHz and 900MHz spectrum to build out mobile carriers' existing infrastructure. In recent years, all of the major providers have been hard at work developing fourth-generation LTE capacity, and additional spectrum would certainly help meet the demands of the new technology. The eventual decision stands to upend the state of Japanese wireless competition, and top executives are feeling the pressure. Junichi Miyakawa, the executive vice president, director and CTO of Softbank Mobile, was quoted in the Asahi Shimbun on Wednesday saying, "If we don't get new frequency next year, it will topple our company." Providers' current access to spectrum is among the major considerations for increased allocation, making things effectively a two-horse race between the established Softbank and upstart eAccess. (theverge.com) Nov 16 Baseball: Hawks beat Dragons, extend series to at least six games The Japan Series has gone from a best-of-seven to a best-of-three. Hiroki Kokubo's RBI single in the first inning and reliever Masahiko Morifuku's Herculean effort in the sixth helped the Fukuoka Softbank Hawks hold off the Chunichi Dragons for a 2-1 victory in Game 4 of the Japan Series on Wednesday at Nagoya Dome. "This was a really tough game," Hawks manager Koji Akiyama said. "We had just enough to get by and hang on for the win." Softbank's win evens the series at 2-2 and means the teams will play a sixth game on Saturday in Fukuoka. The silver lining for Chunichi is that the road team has wonevery game thus far. (Japan Times) Nov 14 Baseball: Hawks look to bounce back as series shifts to Nagoya Two games, four runs, 20 innings and two bad pitches by Fukuoka Softbank Hawks closer Takahiro Mahara have added up to a 2-0 lead for the Chunichi Dragons in the Japan Series. The biggest part of the Dragons' formula might be all the chances the Hawks have given away. After racking up the second-most runs in Japan during the regular season, the Hawks' offense has lost its punch, leaving the team on the verge of watching a series it was favored to win slip away, after losing 2-1 in 10 innings in Games 1 and 2. (Japan Times) Nov 9 Softbank, Alibaba seeking partners to take over Yahoo Softbank Corp. and China's Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. are talking with private-equity funds about making a bid for all of Yahoo Inc. without the company's blessing, sources said. Alibaba and Softbank, in an effort to buy back stakes owned by Yahoo, have grown impatient with a lack of progress in direct talks with the firm, said the sources, who asked not to be named because the negotiations are private. The two companies aim to work with partners that haven't signed nondisclosure agreements circulated by Yahoo that can make it harder to bid for the whole company, the sources said. Yahoo prefers to sell a smaller stake, rather than cede complete control, they said. (Japan Times) Nov 8 Baseball: Iwakuma, Wada among 93 free agents Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles right-hander Hisashi Iwakuma and Fukuoka Softbank Hawks lefty Tsuyoshi Wada, both of whom have qualified as free agents to ply their trades overseas, were among 93 players posted for free agency by Nippon Professional Baseball Commissioner Ryozo Kato on Tuesday. Tuesday marked the opening of the 2011 free agent market. Players like Wada and Iwakuma as well as Softbank shortstop Munenori Kawasaki and Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters second baseman Kensuke Tanaka, are among 17 who have served nine years on the active roster in Japanese baseball for the right to play abroad for the first time. (Japan Times) Nov 4 Baseball: Hawks pull within a win of punching ticket to Japan Series All he needed was one strong swing. After the inning, he ended up coming out of the dugout to wave his hat to the excited fans. Pinch hitter Nobuhiko Matsunaka smacked the first pitch from Seibu reliever Kazuhisa Makita into the right-field stands for a game-insuring grand slam in the bottom of the eighth inning to guide the Fukuoka Softbank Hawks to a 7-2 victory over the Seibu Lions in Game 2 of the Pacific League Climax Series final stage on Friday night. (Japan Times) Nov 3 Smartphone sales cheer cell phone firms Buoyed by upbeat sales of smartphones, major mobile phone companies are expected to perform strongly in the second half of this fiscal year--but the eye-popping success of these products could also require some substantial expenditure down the road. Since KDDI Corp. began selling Apple Inc.'s iPhones, a price war has been intensifying between the company and SoftBank Mobile Corp., which had been the popular handset's exclusive distributor in Japan. NTT Docomo Inc., which reported earnings results for the first half of fiscal 2011 on Wednesday, saw its group operating profit fall because revisions to compensation services for handset malfunctions and other emergencies had raised its profit by about 55 billion yen last fiscal year. However, the nation's largest mobile phone service operator reported an increase in income from communications charges. (Yomiuri) Oct 14 Eight-block line forms outside Apple store in Tokyo for iPhone 4S Hundreds of Apple fans in Tokyo waited in a line that stretched eight blocks - that's eight blocks - outside Apple's Ginza store on Friday morning local time, eager to get their hands on the refreshed smartphone, which now sports a faster processor, better camera and the acclaimed Siri voice-activated personal assistant app. According to a Reuters report, many in the line were purchasing Apple's new device as a tribute to Steve Jobs, the comapny's co-founder who died last week after a long illness. The introduction of the iPhone 4S marks the end of exclusivity in Japan for mobile carrier Softbank. KDDI's 'au' mobile arm is now also selling the popular smartphone too, while the country's biggest mobile operator, NTT Docomo, still has no deal with Apple to sell the device. (Digital Trends) Oct 7 Yahoo likely to shed Yahoo Japan stake: report Yahoo Inc is likely to sell its 35 percent stake in Yahoo Japan ahead of the conclusion of its broader strategic review, possibly within weeks, the Financial Times reported. Yahoo's stake in the Japanese business is seen as an asset the company could dispose of relatively quickly, simplifying its strategic alternatives, the FT reported, citing people familiar with the matter. A deal to sell its stake in Yahoo Japan -- which Yahoo owns along with Japanese mobile company Softbank -- could facilitate a sale of the rest of the company, the FT said. (Reuters) Oct 6 Softbank CEO: Steve Jobs like Leonardo Da Vinci Softbank Corp. Chief Executive Masayoshi Son, whose company is the sole carrier of the iPhone in Japan, compares Steve Jobs to Leonardo da Vinci. "I am deeply saddened to learn of the passing of Steve Jobs," Son said in a statement. "Steve was truly a genius of our time, a man with a rare ability to fuse art and technology. In centuries from now, he will be remembered alongside Leonardo da Vinci. His achievements will continue to shine forever." Jobs died in the U.S. on Wednesday. He was 56. (Channel NewsAsia) Oct 6 Smartphone wars heating up SoftBank Mobile Corp. will likely face a tough sales battle with KDDI Corp. over the iPhone 4S after failing to win exclusive domestic distribution rights for the new device. As both companies will sell the new iPhone, consumers will be able to purchase the new model after comparing prices and services, including the quality of reception. Apple Inc. announced Tuesday it would start selling the new iPhone 4S smartphone next Friday in seven countries, including Japan and the United States. KDDI, the operator of au cell phones, will sell the iPhone for the first time, breaking SoftBank's monopoly on the iPhone series. (Yomiuri) Oct 5 KDDI to sell new iPhone - Apple Japan's second-largest mobile carrier KDDI will sell Apple's new iPhone, the California-based company said, ending rival operator Softbank's highly profitable reign as the sole provider in Japan. Shares of Softbank fell 2.3 percent in morning trade, while KDDI fell 0.5 percent and market leader NTT Docomo slid 1.4 percent. That compared with a 0.8 percent fall in the benchmark Nikkei average . The market response may have been muted by the fact that the reception for the iPhone 4S, unveiled on Tuesday in California, was lukewarm compared with the rapturous welcome sparked by previous models. (Reuters) Sep 30 Baseball: Hawks trim magic number to one to clinch PL title Shuhei Fukuda hit his first career homer and singled in the go-ahead run as the Fukuoka Softbank Hawks rallied from a three-run deficit to beat the Seibu Lions 4-3 on Friday. With the win, coupled with a loss by the second-place Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters, the Hawks reduced their magic number to one for clinching the Pacific League title. Fukuda homered off veteran Fumiya Nishiguchi (9-7) to pull Softbank within 3-1 in the fifth, the Hawks' first hit of the night at Seibu Dome. Two innings later, the 22-year-old outfielder put the team ahead 4-3 with an RBI single off reliever Atsushi Okamoto. (Japan Times) Sep 29 Softbank Announces 110 Mbps Network, May Handle IPhones Softbank, Japan's third-largest mobile carrier and exclusive purveyor of the Apple iPhone in the country, said Thursday it would launch in November a new data network allowing downloads of up to 110 Mbps (megabits per second), faster than many wired connections provide today. The new "Softbank 4G" network will initially be available via portable modems that create small wireless networks for computers and other devices, with the company aiming to have the country's main populations centers covered by April 2013. It will be compatible with a growing Chinese standard that media reports say Apple will support, meaning that future iPhones on Softbank's network could have access to the blazing download speeds. (PC World) Sep 22 Softbank faces setback in Japan iPhone 5 shakeup Softbank Corp's (9984.T) lucrative gig as the sole iPhone vendor in Japan faces trouble as rival KDDI (9433.T) hammers out a deal with Apple, a source familiar with the matter said on Thursday, while worries of lost sales sent Softbank shares sliding 12 percent. The deal could be a boon to Apple (AAPL.O), whose customers would end up with a better network, but is expected to trigger a huge shake-up in the domestic mobile phone market over the next six to 12 months. "Softbank may cut prices to prevent users who are unhappy about its network quality from fleeing to bigger KDDI, which could in turn lower rates," said Michito Kimura, a senior market analyst at IDC Japan. (Reuters) [ More... ]