SoftBank

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SoftBank Corp. ソフトバンク株式会社

Type	Public (TYO: 9984 )
Founded	Tokyo, Japan (1981)
Headquarters	Tokyo, Japan
Key people	Masayoshi Son (孫正義), Founder, President & CEO Yoshitaka Kitao, Director Ken Miyauchi, Director Kazuhiko Kasai, Director Masahiro Inoue, Director Ronald Fisher, Director Jun Murai, Director Tadashi Yanai, Director Mitsuo Sano, Full-time Corporate Auditor
Industry	electronic commerce
Products	various
Revenue	$1.53 billion (January 1, 2005)
Subsidiaries	SoftBank Mobile Softbank Telecom Yahoo! Japan Softbank BB
Slogan	N/A
Website	www.softbank.co.jp

SoftBank Corp. (ソフトバンク株式会社, Sofutobanku Kabushiki-gaisha^?) (TYO: 9984 ) is a leading Japanese telecommunications and media 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 capitalisation of approximately US$32.8 billion at 28 February 2006.

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 and Morningstar.

Various media outlets have reported that Softbank and Apple Computer are jointly developing a 3G mobile phone with a built-in iPod player for the Japanese market.[1] [2] [3]

[edit] Timeline

January 28, 2005 SoftBank becomes the owner of the Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks, a Japanese professional baseball team.
March 17, 2006 SoftBank announces that 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 softbank.ne.jp respectively. [4]