SoftBank Group
SoftBank Group Corp. (ソフトバンクグループ株式会社, SofutoBanku Gurūpu Kabushiki gaisha) is a Japanese multinational investment holding company headquartered in Minato, Tokyo which focuses on investment management.[3] The group primarily invests in companies operating in technology that offer goods and services to customers in a multitude of markets and industries ranging from the internet to automation.[4] With over $100 billion in capital at its onset, SoftBank's Vision Fund is the world's largest technology-focused venture capital fund. Fund investors included sovereign wealth funds from countries in the Middle East.[5][6][7]
"SoftBank" redirects here. For the venture capital fund, see SoftBank Vision Fund. For the Japanese professional baseball team, see Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks.
Native name
ソフトバンクグループ株式会社
SofutoBanku Gurūpu Kabushiki gaisha
- TYO: 9984
- TOPIX Core30 component
- Nikkei 225 component
3 September 1981
Masayoshi Son
(Chairman and CEO)
¥−469.13 billion (2022)[1]
¥−789.8 billion (2022)[1]
¥79.24 billion (2022)[2]
¥43.94 trillion (2022)[1]
¥10.65 trillion (2022)[1]
Masayoshi Son (29.16%)
63,339 (2022)[2]
- SoftBank Group Capital Limited
- SoftBank Group Japan
- SB Pan Pacific Corporation
- Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks
- SB Investment Advisers (UK)
- SB Global Advisers
- SB Energy
The company is known for the leadership of its controversial[8][9][10][11] founder and largest shareholder Masayoshi Son.[12][13][14] Its investee companies, subsidiaries and divisions, including several unprofitable unicorns,[15][16] operate in robotics, artificial intelligence, software, logistics, transportation, biotechnology, robotic process automation, proptech, real estate, hospitality, broadband, fixed-line telecommunications, e-commerce, information technology, finance, media and marketing, and other areas.[17] Among its most internationally recognizable current stockholdings are stakes in Arm[18] (semiconductors), Alibaba[19] (e-commerce), OYO Rooms[20] (hospitality), WeWork[21] (coworking) and Deutsche Telekom[22] (telecommunications). SoftBank Corporation, its spun-out affiliate and former flagship business, is the third-largest wireless carrier in Japan, with 45.621 million subscribers as of March 2021.[23] Poor investment decisions of Masayoshi Son’s SoftBank Group led to a panoply of losing investments across the history of the company.[24][25]
SoftBank was ranked in the 2017 Forbes Global 2000 list as the 36th largest public company in the world[26] and the second-largest publicly traded company in Japan after Toyota.[27]
The logo of SoftBank is based on the flag of the Kaientai, a naval trading company founded in 1865, near the end of the Tokugawa shogunate, by Sakamoto Ryōma.[28]
Although SoftBank does not affiliate itself to any traditional keiretsu, it has close ties with Mizuho Financial Group, its primary lender.[29]
History[edit]
Founding and early years[edit]
SoftBank was founded in September 1981 as SOFTBANK Corp by then-24-year-old Masayoshi Son, initially as a software distributor. The company entered the publishing business in May 1982 with the launches of the Oh! PC and Oh! MZ magazines, about NEC and Sharp computers respectively.[30] Oh!PC had a circulation of 140,000 copies by 1989.[31] It would go on to become Japan's largest publisher of computer and technology magazines and trade shows.
In 1994, the company went public, valued at $3 billion.[31] In September 1995, SoftBank agreed to purchase US-based Ziff Davis publishing for $2.1 billion.[32]
1995–2009 expansion[edit]
In the 1990s, Son made large investments in Internet services and the so-called new economy in general. SoftBank bought COMDEX from The Interface Group on 1 April 1995 for $800 million and ZDI on 29 February 1996.[33][34] SoftBank sold COMDEX to Key3Media, a spin-off of Ziff Davis, in 2001.[35] In 1996, SoftBank formed a joint venture with American internet company Yahoo!, creating Yahoo! Japan, which would become a dominant site in the country.[36]
In another highly publicized investment, SoftBank bought 80% of memory manufacturers Kingston Technology in 1996. When the owners-founders (John Tu and David Sun) announced plans to distribute $100,000,000 of the $1.5B windfall to Kingston employees, it created a very high-profile media stir that lasted well through the 1996 Christmas season; it was on all US networks, as well as international media. A few years later, in 1999, after the market for memory softened substantially, SoftBank sold the company back at a loss to the original owners for about a third of the original price.[37]
In October 1999, SoftBank became a holding company.[38] In 2000, SoftBank made its most successful investment – $20 million to a then-fledgling Chinese Internet venture called Alibaba.[39] This investment turned into $60 billion when Alibaba went public in September 2014.[40][41]
In February 2000, SoftBank Ventures Asia was founded under the leadership of Masayoshi Son to focus on investment in Korean-based Internet companies.[42]
SoftBank Ventures Asia[edit]
SoftBank Ventures Asia (SBVA) was the global early-stage venture capital arm of the SoftBank Group[191] The firm focused on early-stage ICT investments – including Artificial Intelligence (AI), the internet of things (IoT), and smart robotics.[192] By October 2021, SBVA had backed more than 250 companies in 10 countries with US$1.3 billion fund under management.[193]
SoftBank Ventures Asia (SBVA) was founded in 2000 as SoftBank Ventures Korea[192] and began its focus on South Korean market[192] and its early-stage ventures.[191] SBVA’s one of the early investments in South Korea included Nexon Co, now a Korean-Japanese gaming publisher that was the largest IPO in Japan for 2011.[191]
SoftBank Ventures Asia (SBVA) expanded its focus beyond South Korea since 2011 and made several notable investments in Southeast Asia,[194] such as Tokopedia,[195] an Indonesian e-commerce platform, and Carro, Singapore's used-car platform.[196] In 2018, SBVA launched a $300m venture fund ‘China Venture Fund I’,[192] targeting Chinese start-ups,[197] then immediately trailed by ‘SoftBank Acceleration Fund’ with $300M the following year.[191] With continuous investment across Asia and beyond, the company renamed itself as SoftBank Ventures Asia to reflect its broadened focus on startups in the Asia-Pacific region beyond South Korea, and opened offices in Seoul,[198] Singapore, and Beijing.
With the company’s extended expertise in ICT investment, SBVA is aiming towards two investment themes, which were ‘technology innovation’ in AI,[192] Robotics, Semiconductor, Mobility, and AR/VR, and ‘market innovation’ in consumer, enterprise, shared economy, healthcare, etc.[193] SBVA created $160M ‘future innovation fund’ in March 2021, focusing on AI start-ups[199] and made investment in AI sector including VoyagerX, AI software developer,[200] Upstage AI, AI solution provider,[200] and MarqVision, AI-powered intellectual property (IP) protection platform.[201]
In April 2023, it was known that Masayoshi Son's SoftBank Group would sell its early-stage venture capital arm SoftBank Ventures Asia to Singapore-based The Edgeof, a newly formed investment firm led by Son's youngest brother, Taizo Son, as SoftBank Group grappled with steep losses in a myriad of investments made around the world.[202] The operation raised governance concerns.[203]