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129-710: As an entrepreneur, he achieved notability in PC software distribution, computing-related book and magazine publishing, and telecommunications in Japan, starting in the 1980s and booming throughout the 1990s and 2000s. His early $ 20 million investment in Alibaba Group in 2000 grew substantially over the years, reaching a valuation of around $ 75 billion by 2014 following Alibaba's IPO and contributing significantly to SoftBank's financial success. SoftBank's 27 percent stake in Alibaba

258-624: A comparison shopping website that offers search results from mostly Chinese online shopping platforms, including product searches, sales and coupon searches. According to the Alibaba Group web site, eTao offers products from Amazon China, Dangdang , Gome, Yihaodian , Nike China, and Vancl, as well as Taobao and Tmall. As part of a restructuring of Taobao by Alibaba, these spin-offs became separate companies in 2011, with Tmall and eTao becoming separate businesses in June and Juhuasuan becoming

387-688: A state-owned enterprise of the China Internet Investment Fund , established by the Cyberspace Administration of China , took a 1 percent golden share investment in two Alibaba subsidiaries that control Youku and UCWeb . In March 2023, Alibaba announced their "1+6+N" restructuring plan, which reorganized its business structure into six independently run entities: Cloud Intelligence Group, Taobao and Tmall Group, Cainiao Smart Logistics Network, Local Services group, Alibaba International Digital Commerce, and

516-541: A variable interest entity (VIE) structure, buying a 40% stake in the company for US$ 1 billion. This would as a result net in US$ 10 ;billion in Alibaba's IPO alone to Yahoo!. In 2012, China Investment Corporation led a group of Chinese investors in buying out Yahoo!'s 40% stake and in buying the Alibaba shares that had traded on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange . According to Li Chuan,

645-508: A "Vision Fund 2", excluding participation from the Saudi Arabia government and including investors Apple, Foxconn, Microsoft and others. The fund is reported to focus on AI-based technology and invest approximately $ 108 billion, including $ 38 billion of its own funds. In February 2020, however, a report from Wall Street Journal stated the fund would only up with less than half of that capital. On 8 June 2017, Alphabet Inc. announced

774-524: A $ 2.5 billion stake in Softbank and pushed for restructuring and more transparency, especially regarding its Vision Fund. Consequently, plans for a second Vision Fund were pushed back. In November 2019, it was announced that Line Corp. and Z Holdings were going to be a new subsidiary under Naver Corporation and SoftBank Group, their respective owners. The closing was delayed until March 2021 due to COVID-19. In March 2020, SoftBank announced that it

903-687: A $ 300 million SPAC in 2021, listing in Amsterdam. In July 2021, Softbank announced that it would acquire the Yahoo Japan brand from Verizon Communications for $ 1.6 billion. In August 2021, Son said he would begin to make personal investments alongside Softbank Group's Vision Fund 2 . In August 2022, Softbank said that it sold its entire Uber holdings in April–July 2022. It was also reported that Softbank exited Opendoor in that quarter. Five years after Masayoshi Son’s $ 100 billion fund entered

1032-576: A $ 300m stake in WeWork. On 14 February 2017, SoftBank Group agreed to buy Fortress Investment Group LLC for $ 3.3 billion. In February 2017, it was announced that Social Finance Inc. was close to raising $ 500 million from an investor group led by Silver Lake , including Softbank. 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

1161-675: A 40% stake in AutoStore for $ 2.8 billion and in July 2021, it announced it would invest $ 870 million in the Korean hotel booking platform Yanolja. In May 2021, Softbank stated it would sell SB Energy India to Adani Green Energy, valuing the unit at $ 3.5 billion. The sale is speculated to mark a shift in the company's trajectory, moving away from investments in solar energy towards companies dealing with artificial intelligence. Later that month, Bloomberg reported that Vision Fund could go public via

1290-796: A 51% stake in Supercell for a reported $ 2.1 billion. Later on 25 October 2014, they invested $ 210 million in OlaCabs , $ 627 million in Snapdeal with a 30% stake in the company on 28 October 2014, and a $ 100 million investment in Housing.com for a 30% stake in November 2014. In 2013, the company bought a controlling stake in French company Aldebaran Robotics, which was rebranded SoftBank Robotics. In 2014, teams from both companies co-designed Pepper ,

1419-644: A Chinese crackdown on big tech , SAMR issued a $ 2.8 billion fine against Alibaba for anti-competitive practices and ordered Alibaba to file self-examination and compliance reports to the SAMR for three years. This amounted to 12% Archived 3 June 2021 at the Wayback Machine of its 2020 net profit. Critics say the move tightens the Chinese's governments control of tech companies. Alibaba stated that it would dedicate itself to correct its errors and accepted

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1548-563: A US$ 25 million investment from Swedish Wallenberg family's Investor AB , Goldman Sachs and SoftBank . In 1999, Wallenbergs Investor AB owned 6% of the shares. Alibaba.com was expected to improve the domestic e-commerce market and perfect an e-commerce platform for Chinese enterprises, especially small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), to help export Chinese products to the global market as well as to address World Trade Organization (WTO) challenges. In 2002, Alibaba.com became profitable three years after launch. Ma wanted to improve

1677-511: A cash and stock deal initially worth $ 40 billion. The buy price, initially set at $ 40bn (cash and Nvidia shares) when first announced in September 2020, had risen closer to an estimated $ 66bn by 2022 given the intervening hike in Nvidia's stock – that would make this deal the biggest deal in the semiconductor market. Announcing the deal, SoftBank said the combination of Arm and Nvidia would create

1806-520: A cloud computing service platform, including e-commerce data mining, e-commerce data processing, and data customization. It has R&D centres and operators in Hangzhou, Beijing, Hong Kong, Singapore, Silicon Valley and Dubai. In July 2014, Alibaba Cloud entered into a partnership deal with Inspur. Alibaba Cloud is the largest high-end cloud computing company in China. In 2009, Alibaba acquired HiChina,

1935-498: A computing company "that will lead the era" of artificial intelligence . However, the deal with Nvidia failed as announced in February 2022. After the collapse of the deal with Nvidia because of objections from U.S. and E.U. antitrust regulators, SoftBank Group Corp's chip maker Arm filed in 2023 with regulators confidentially for a U.S. stock market listing seeking to raise between $ 8 billion and $ 10 billion. The estimated value of

2064-444: A controlling interest. After a severe devaluation of SoftBank's equity, Son was forced to focus his attention on Yahoo! BB and BB Phone. So far, SoftBank has accumulated about $ 1.3 billion in debt. Yet, Yahoo! BB acquired Japan Telecom , the then third largest broadband and landline provider with 600,000 residential and 170,000 commercial subscribers. Yahoo! BB is now Japan's leading broadband provider. In June 2020, Son stepped down from

2193-425: A damage control view suggesting that the subscription-driven, third-party verified "China Gold Supplier" program was endangered by diminished trust in its endorsement system, removing the incentive for global buyers to choose Alibaba as their business-to-business service, thus more broadly endangering Alibaba through impact on its brand and capabilities (the latter via the "defenestration of senior people"). The scandal

2322-564: A deal that was worth 1.2 billion yuan (US$ 192 million). On 5 September 2014, the group—in a regulatory filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)—set a US$ 60- to $ 66- per-share price range for its scheduled initial public offering (IPO), the final price of which would be determined after an international roadshow to gauge the investor interest in Alibaba shares to shareholders. On 18 September 2014, Alibaba's IPO priced at US$ 68, raising US$ 21.8 billion for

2451-491: A diverse portfolio of companies around the world in numerous business sectors. On 19 September 2014, Alibaba's initial public offering (IPO) on the New York Stock Exchange raised US$ 25 billion, giving the company a market value of US$ 231 billion and, by far, then the largest IPO in world history. It is one of the top 10 most valuable corporations, and is named the 31st-largest public company in

2580-474: A dominant site in the country. 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

2709-568: A feat surpassed by Elon Musk in the following decades. Son was included in Time 100 AI list in 2024. Masayoshi Son was born as the second of four sons in Tosu (鳥栖市, Tosu-shi), a city in the eastern part of Saga Prefecture on the island of Kyushu , Japan . Son is a 3rd generation Zainichi Korean . Zainichi Koreans are ethnic Koreans with permanent residency or citizenship in Japan. Son's grandfather, Son Jong-kyung, moved from Daegu to Japan during

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2838-579: A global logistics network, underpinning an aggressive overseas expansion, and demonstrating Alibaba's commitment to building the most efficient logistics network in China and around the world. It is investing a further 5.3 billion yuan in Cainiao Logistics to boost its stake to 51 percent from 47 percent. The investment would value Cainiao, a joint venture of top Chinese logistics firms, at around US$ 20 billion. Alibaba uses Cainiao software at its Belgian-European sales hub. The software

2967-506: A host for other businesses to sell to consumers. Similar to eBay, sellers on Aliexpress can be either companies or individuals. It connects Chinese businesses directly with buyers. The main difference from Taobao is that it's aimed primarily at international buyers, mainly the US, Russia, Brazil and Spain. In 2012, Alibaba instituted its Public Dispute Resolution Center, which crowdsources buyers and sellers to vote on transactional rules and decide

3096-490: A humanoid robot. In 2015, SoftBank increased its stake to 95%. In 2015, SoftBank acquired DramaFever . In May 2015, Masayoshi Son said he would appoint Nikesh Arora , a former Google executive, as Representative Director and President of SoftBank. Arora had been heading SoftBank's investment arm. On 1 June 2015, SoftBank acquired an additional 22.7% stake in Supercell, increasing its total stake to 73.2% and becoming

3225-471: A mobile app that recommends customers products based on data analytics. In addition, customers can have their groceries cooked to eat in the food court of the supermarket. In October 2018, it was reported that Alibaba's Koubei have merged with online food delivery service platform Ele.me into a new local life service subsidiary. However, the newly formed Alibaba Local Life Service entity experienced major competition from local service giant Meituan , which

3354-1227: A multitude of markets and industries ranging from the internet to automation. 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 . The company is known for the leadership of its controversial founder and largest shareholder Masayoshi Son . Its investee companies, subsidiaries and divisions, including several unprofitable unicorns , 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. Among its most internationally recognizable current stockholdings are stakes in Arm (semiconductors), Alibaba (e-commerce), OYO Rooms (hospitality), WeWork (coworking) and Deutsche Telekom (telecommunications). SoftBank Corporation, its spun-out affiliate and former flagship business,

3483-674: A new subsidiary and brand from Yahoo! Japan, Ymobile Corporation . On 15 October 2012, SoftBank announced plans to take control of American Sprint Nextel by purchasing a 70% stake for $ 20 billion. On 6 July 2013, the United States Federal Communications Commission approved SoftBank's acquisition for $ 22.2 billion for a 78% ownership interest in Sprint. On 6 August 2013, SoftBank bought 2% more shares of Sprint Corporation, increasing its ownership stake to 80%. In October 2013, SoftBank acquired

3612-463: A planned $ 200 billion project with SoftBank Group to build the world's biggest solar-power-generation project would be put on hold. In November 2018, SoftBank announced it would make an IPO of SoftBank Corp., the telecommunications operator, with the cost of share of $ 13.22 (which is 1,500 yen). The offer of the shares was going to last for a month. Regarding the number of shares, the total value of SoftBank Corp. will reach $ 21.15 billion, which would be

3741-583: A planned 275 GW of new renewable provision in India by 2027. Established in 2017, SoftBank Group 's investment vehicle, the $ 100 billion Vision Fund , was intended to invest in emerging technologies like artificial intelligence (AI), robotics and the internet of things . As of 2019, it aimed to nearly double its portfolio of AI companies from 70 to 125. However, it also invested in companies supposedly focused on revolutionizing real estate, transportation, and retail. Son claimed he would make personal connections with

3870-593: A public appearance in Hangzhou, China in March 2023 where he met with students and teachers at the Alibaba partners-funded Yungu School. In February 2021, Alibaba sold $ 5 billion in bonds, the company's third large sale of dollar bonds , issuing four sets priced to yield between 2.143% and 3.251%. The four sets of bonds were $ 1.5 billion of both 10-year and 30-year debt along with $ 1 billion of bonds due in 20 and 40 years. The 20-year bonds were designated as sustainability notes . On 9 April 2021, as part of

3999-433: A record $ 36.99 billion profit from its Vision Fund unit and investment gains via the public market debut of Coupang . SoftBank Group's net profit was $ 45.88 billion (¥4.99 trillion). It was the largest recorded annual profit by a Japanese company in history. The same month, Softbank's Vision Fund 2 announced investment in the eToro SPAC merger PIPE of $ 650 million. In April 2021, Softbank announced plans to acquire

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4128-554: A record 14.2% of shares, valued at $ 4.4bn, to boost investor confidence. 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 a reported US$ 7.3 billion to Tencent . On 3 June 2016, Softbank agreed to sell most of its stake in GungHo Online Entertainment (approximately 23.47%) for about $ 685 million, ending Softbank's majority ownership. The offer

4257-578: A senior executive at Alibaba, the company was planning in 2013 to open traditional brick and mortar retail outlets in partnership with Wanda Group, a Chinese real estate company. Additionally, Alibaba purchased a 25% stake in Hong Kong-listed Chinese department store chain Intime Retail in early 2014. In early 2017, Alibaba and Intime's founder Shen Guojun agreed to pay as much as HK$ 19.8 billion (US$ 2.6 billion) to take

4386-594: A separate business later in October. In 2010, Alibaba launched AliExpress.com, an online retail service made up of mostly small Chinese businesses offering products to international online buyers. It is the most visited e-commerce platform in Russia. It allows small businesses in China to sell to customers all over the world, resulting in a wide variety of products. It might be more accurate to compare AliExpress to eBay, though, as sellers are independent; it simply serves as

4515-488: A share of Yahoo! in 1995 and investing a $ 20 million stake into Alibaba in 1999; he was briefly the richest person in the world before the stock market crashed. Son's holding company SoftBank owned 29.5% of Alibaba , which was worth around $ 108.7 billion as of 23 October 2018. Although SoftBank's stake in Yahoo! had dwindled to 7%, Son established Yahoo! BroadBand in September 2001 with Yahoo! Japan in which he still owned

4644-646: A significant amount of technology for the Digital Silk Road . In 1999, Jack Ma launched the primary business of Alibaba, Alibaba.com, while working as an English teacher in Hangzhou . Alibaba.com later became the world's largest online B2B trading platform for small businesses as of 2014. Alibaba.com has three main services: the English language portal Alibaba.com, which handles sales between importers and exporters from more than 240 countries and regions,

4773-420: A subsidiary of SBI's holding company, making SBI independent. On 1 October 2006, Vodafone Japan changed its corporate name and service brand name to "SoftBank Mobile" and "SoftBank" respectively. On 28 January 2008, it was announced that SoftBank and Tiffany & Co. collaborated in making a limited 10 model-only phone. This phone contains more than 400 platinum diamonds, totaling more than 20 carats. The cost

4902-579: A three-story mansion in Minato that is valued at USD 85 million and that has a golf range with technology to mimic the weather conditions and temperature of the world's top golf courses. He has also bought a home near Silicon Valley in Woodside, California , that cost him $ 117 million. He owns the SoftBank Hawks , a professional Japanese baseball team. Son has three brothers and is the second oldest of

5031-722: A value of US $ 40 billion in stock and cash. This would become the largest semiconductor acquisition to date. SoftBank Group would retain a 10% share in the company, while ARM would maintain its headquarters in Cambridge]]. But this deal collapsed due to regulatory hurdles. In December 2020, Hyundai Motor Group acquired an 80% stake of Boston Dynamics from SoftBank for approximately $ 880 million. SoftBank retains about 20% through an affiliate. In January 2021, SoftBank sold $ 2 billion in Uber Technologies shares through affiliate firm SB Cayman. In March 2021, SoftBank made

5160-461: A variety of products for retail sales. Taobao grew to become China's largest C2C online shopping platform and later became the second most visited website in China, according to Alexa Internet . Taobao's growth was attributed to offering free registration and commission-free transactions using a free third-party payment platform. Advertising made up 75 percent of the company's total revenue, allowing it to break even in 2009. In 2010, Taobao's profit

5289-590: Is a 12 nm 16-core with a clockrate of 2.5 GHz, and was designed by Alibaba's subsidiary T-Head (also known as Pingtouge). Alibaba claim the Xuantie-910 is faster than the ARM Cortex-A73 and is capable of 7.1 Coremark/MHz. On 25 September 2019, Alibaba announced an AI accelerator called the Hanguang 800. The Hanguang 800 contains 17 billion transistors built with a 12 nm process and

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5418-459: Is a Chinese multinational technology company specializing in e-commerce , retail , Internet , and technology . Founded on 28 June 1999 in Hangzhou, Zhejiang , the company provides consumer-to-consumer (C2C), business-to-consumer (B2C), and business-to-business (B2B) sales services via Chinese and global marketplaces, as well as local consumer, digital media and entertainment, logistics, and cloud computing services. It owns and operates

5547-520: Is able to access data about retailers, products, transport details and flows, a person familiar with the company's IT systems told the British newspaper Financial Times . Chinese companies are legally obliged to pass on their data to China's authorities and security services. The Belgium State Security Service is monitoring the hub in Lütich because of this fact and possible espionage . According to

5676-429: Is also one of the biggest venture capital firms and investment corporations in the world, as well as the second largest financial services group behind Visa via its fintech arm Ant Group . The company hosts the largest B2B (Alibaba.com), C2C ( Taobao ), and B2C ( Tmall ) marketplaces in the world. It has been expanding into the media industry, with revenues rising by triple percentage points year after year. It also set

5805-399: Is backed by Tencent , leading to rumours of planned layoffs in 2022. In September 2019, Alibaba announced it would acquire Chinese e-commerce platform Kaola from NetEase for around US$ 2 billion . In October 2020, Alibaba agreed to pay US$ 3.6 billion to take control of China's biggest hypermarket operator Sun Art (SEHK: 6808) from French billionaire Mulliez family . The deal doubled

5934-427: Is designed as an online mall for brands such as airline companies and agencies. Fliggy set the target audience as the younger generation and it strives to become a one-stop service when they plan their trips, particularly in overseas travel. On 7 August 2017, Alibaba Group and Marriott International hotel group announced a comprehensive strategic co-operation. Two companies will set up a joint venture company. Through

6063-437: Is not a thief. Alibaba is a kind, smart business person, and he helped the village. So ... easy to spell, and global know. Alibaba opens sesame for small- to medium-sized companies. We also registered the name AliMama, in case someone wants to marry us! On 28 June 1999, Jack Ma , with 17 friends and students founded Alibaba.com, a China-based B2B marketplace site, in his Hangzhou apartment. In October 1999, Alibaba received

6192-486: Is said to be more than 100,000,000 yen. On 3 February 2010, SoftBank acquired 13.7% in Ustream . On 1 October 2010, Ayumi Hamasaki became the commercial spokesperson. On 3 October 2012, the takeover of competitor eAccess was announced. On 1 July 2013, SoftBank announced that Willcom was a wholly-owned subsidiary, after the termination of rehabilitation proceedings. eAccess was merged with Willcom, which resulted in

6321-510: Is the third-largest wireless carrier in Japan , with 45.621 million subscribers as of March 2021. SoftBank was ranked in the 2017 Forbes Global 2000 list as the 36th largest public company in the world and the second-largest publicly traded company in Japan after Toyota . The logo of SoftBank is based on the flag of the Kaientai , a naval trading company founded in 1865, near the end of

6450-436: Is the founder, CEO and largest shareholder of SoftBank ; as of December 2022, he had a 34.2% stake in the company. Masayoshi Son was the founder of SoftBank Corp. In 1981, it operated as a software vendor, becoming a major telecommunications operator in Japan and later morphing into SoftBank Group Corp., an investment holding company. SoftBank Corp., the telecom, remained in business as a spun out company of SoftBank Group Corp,

6579-576: The Financial Times , Cainiao denied suggestions of wrongdoing, noting that the firm operates in compliance with relevant laws and regulations. According to the Reuters , Alibaba Group Holding Ltd has divested its logistics arm for $ 8.5 billion to a consortium led by investment firms Boyu Capital and Primavera Capital Group . In conjunction with the company's 10th anniversary, Alibaba launched Alibaba Cloud in September 2009, aiming to build

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6708-712: The Financial Times , Masayoshi Son personally owed SoftBank $ 4.7bn because of growing losses on the Japanese conglomerate's technology bets, which have also rendered the value of his stake in the group's second Vision Fund worthless. By February 2023, this personal debt totaled $ 5.1 billion according to Bloomberg calculations based on company disclosures. This debt on side deals he set up at SoftBank Group Corp. to boost his compensation, as losses mounted at its core Vision Fund venture capital arm , sparked controversy due to corporate governance concerns, but Son insisted that there wasn't any conflict of interest . As of March 2023, while

6837-456: The Japanese colonial period , where he worked as a miner. His father is Son Sam-heon. His father and other Koreans illegally built their houses on land that was owned by Japan National Railways , which caused them trouble with the authorities. His father raised pigs and chickens on that land, and started an illegal sake business that eventually became successful enough for his family to become

6966-464: The Olympic Games . In September 2018, Jack Ma, the main founder of Alibaba, announced that he would step down as chairman in a year's time so he could focus on philanthropy. In response to the announcement, The Economist stated that Ma had a significant impact in China and worldwide via contributions and dedication to various businesses. In May 2019, Bloomberg cited sources familiar with

7095-545: The Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia (PIF), the kingdom's main sovereign wealth fund, partnered to create the Softbank Vision Fund, the world's largest private equity fund with a capital of $ 93 billion. Softbank Group contributed $ 28 billion to the investment fund, of which $ 8.2 billion came from the sale of approximately 25% of British multinational Arm Holdings shares. Saudi Arabia is

7224-534: The Tmall Genie smart speaker. In 2018, Alibaba's Wanli Min presented City Brain , a technology geared towards urban solutions such as streamlining traffic, detecting accidents and improving transport efficiency. China's government designated Alibaba as one of its "AI champions " in 2018. On 27 July 2019, Alibaba unveiled a 64-bit RISC-V processor called the XuanTie-910 (Black Iron 910). It

7353-507: The Tokugawa shogunate , by Sakamoto Ryōma . Although SoftBank does not affiliate itself to any traditional keiretsu , it has close ties with Mizuho Financial Group , its primary lender. 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

7482-670: The collapse of Silicon Valley Bank was being investigated, over a third of Son's SoftBank shares had been reportedly posted as collateral for margin loans and the Financial Times were recalling signs of an emergent doomsday scenario for both SoftBank Group and Masayoshi Son. Son met his wife, Masami Ohno, the daughter of a prominent Japanese doctor, while both were students at the University of California, Berkeley. They got married in 1979 and have two daughters. He lives in Tokyo in

7611-497: 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. SoftBank sold COMDEX to Key3Media, a spin-off of Ziff Davis , in 2001. In 1996, SoftBank formed a joint venture with American internet company Yahoo! , creating Yahoo! Japan (now LY Corporation ), which would become

7740-497: The Alibaba board. By 2023, SoftBank had sold most of its Alibaba stake. In July 2016, SoftBank announced plans to acquire Arm Holdings for £23.4 billion ($ 31.4 billion) which would be the largest ever purchase of a European technology company. In September 2016, SoftBank announced that the transaction was complete. The total acquisition price was approximately £24 billion ($ 34 billion). In 2020, SoftBank Group agreed to sell U.K. chip designer Arm Limited to U.S. chip-maker Nvidia in

7869-547: The CEOs of all companies funded by Vision Fund in order to enhance the creation of intertwined synergies among those companies. Son planned to raise $ 100 billion for a new fund every few years, investing about $ 50 billion a year in startups. In 2019, a second Vision Fund was created with a target of $ 108 billion, of which $ 38 billion would come from Softbank itself. But the amount was scaled down due to lack of investing partners beyond Softbank Group itself and Masayoshi Son. As of 2020,

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7998-478: The Chinese portal 1688.com, which manages domestic B2B trade in China, and AliExpress .com, a global consumer marketplace. Alibaba.com went public at the Hong Kong Stock Exchange in 2007, and was delisted again in 2012. In 2013, 1688.com launched a direct channel that was responsible for $ 30 million in daily transaction value. In 2003, Alibaba launched Taobao Marketplace (淘宝网), offering

8127-491: The Digital Media and Entertainment group. Each business unit would have their own CEO and board of directors and be able to seek their own fundraising and market listings. Under the new "1+6+N" structure, Alibaba also established a Capital Management Committee and a Compliance and Risk Committee. The Wall Street Journal reported on 30 March that Jack Ma engineered this in talks with company CEO Daniel Zhang while he

8256-655: The German telecommunications carrier. In response to the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster in 2011, Masayoshi Son criticized the nuclear industry for creating "the problem that worries Japanese the most today" and engaged in investing in a nationwide solar power network for Japan. In March 2018, it was announced that Son was investing in the biggest ever solar project, a 200GW development planned for Saudi Arabia as part of its Vision 2030 . In July 2018, coverage indicated that Son "would underwrite most of 100 GW" of

8385-563: The German used-car sales portal Auto1. On 1 March 2018, Softbank's Vision Fund led a $ 535 million investment in DoorDash . In May 2018, CEO Masayoshi Son revealed during an earnings presentation that Walmart had reached a deal to buy Flipkart. On 27 September 2018, Softbank announced the investment of $ 400 Million in Home-Selling Startup Opendoor . In September 2018, Saudi government officials announced that

8514-451: The Oh! PC and Oh! MZ magazines, about NEC and Sharp computers respectively. Oh!PC had a circulation of 140,000 copies by 1989. 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. In September 1995, SoftBank agreed to purchase US-based Ziff Davis publishing for $ 2.1 billion. In

8643-690: The UK chipmaker being listed by SoftBank at that date ranged from $ 30bn to $ 70bn. In the 2010s, through his holdings in SoftBank, Son bought a 76% share in Sprint . SoftBank later accumulated further shares in Sprint to about 84% ownership. Sprint and T-Mobile US merged in 2020 in an all shares deal for $ 26 billion. By 2021, SoftBank Group Corp. had acquired 4.5% of Deutsche Telekom AG (parent company of T-Mobile) and sold its stake in T-Mobile US Inc. to

8772-566: The announcement. A statement from the firm reported that Yan Limin, the general manager of Alibaba.com at the time, had been dismissed in March for "misconduct"; Phil Muncaster of UK's The Register additionally reported that "a further 28 employees had been involved in dodgy dealings". As The Economist noted, the company's response has conflicting components: Alibaba's promulgated view that its corrective actions indicate its commitment to quality and integrity (where it contrasts itself with other scandal-associated Chinese business sectors), versus

8901-604: The business for an equal equity stake. In 2016, Alibaba acquired control of Singapore-based e-commerce platform Lazada . Lazada is the largest e-commerce platform in southeast Asia, with a major presence in Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam. This acquisition increased integration on Alibaba between Chinese merchants and their customers in southeast Asia. In October 2016, Alibaba launched Alitrip, later named Fliggy, an online travel platform that

9030-512: The case of Alibaba in 1999 and Yahoo! in 1995) and failures (such as an investment in Kingston Technology , during which SoftBank bought 80% of the shares in 1996 but then sold the company back in 1999 at a loss to the original owners for a third of the original price). In 2021, Masayoshi Son relinquished his position as CEO of SoftBank Mobile, the mobile business of SoftBank Corp. Son was an early investor in internet firms, buying

9159-476: The company and investors. Alibaba was the biggest US IPO in history, bigger than Google, Facebook, and Twitter combined. On 19 September 2014, Alibaba's shares (BABA) began trading on the NYSE at an opening price of $ 92.70 at 11:55 am EST. On 22 September 2014, Alibaba's underwriters announced their confirmation that they had exercised a greenshoe option to sell 15% more shares than originally planned, boosting

9288-414: The company to an associate for close to $ 2 million, and the company was eventually acquired by Kyocera . Son used his family's adopted Japanese surname for much of his childhood. However, after he returned to Japan, Son decided to use his family's original Korean surname instead. For this action and other similar ones, Son is considered to be a role model for ethnic Korean children in Japan. Masayoshi Son

9417-622: The company to return its focus to digital-payments. People's Daily , the official newspaper of the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party , endorsed the investigation shortly after the announcement, claiming the investigation to be "an important step in strengthening antimonopoly oversight in the internet sphere". As a result, from the antitrust probe, Alibaba lost nearly all of its stock-market gains in 2020, from $ 859 billion to $ 586 billion, by

9546-557: The company. On 23 June 2015, Alibaba announced that it is selling 11 Main to OpenSky, an online-marketplace operator based in New York. In February 2015, Alibaba invests US$ 590 million in Meizu , acquiring an undisclosed minority stake. In June 2015, Alibaba started a joint venture Koubei with its affiliate Ant Financial Group to tap China's fast-growing local services market, each investing approximately US$ 483 million into

9675-399: The counterfeiters as of 4 January 2017 , but brands whose sales have been affected by the counterfeit products accused Alibaba of not doing enough. In 2017, Alibaba started opening a chain of supermarkets, named Freshippo (or Hema; 盒马), as part of the company's "new retail strategy," where customers can either order in the store or online for delivery in under 30 minutes. It offers

9804-631: The docking technology system and the superiority resources, Fliggy has Marriott hotel flagship store. It has the same function with Marriott Chinese website and Marriott mobile app to create the best global travel experience for consumers. In 2016, the Office of the United States Trade Representative added Taobao back onto a list of notorious counterfeit platforms that includes the likes of torrent site The Pirate Bay . Alibaba denied wrongdoing and filed two lawsuits against

9933-400: The eighth most visited web site in China as of 2013. In 2012, Tmall.com later changed its Chinese name to Tianmao (天猫, "sky cat"), reflecting Tmall's Chinese pronunciation. In March 2010, Taobao launched the group shopping website Juhuasuan (聚划算), offering "flash sales", which are products that are available at a discount for only a fixed time period. In October 2010, Taobao beta-launched eTao,

10062-478: The end of December. Jack Ma, co-founder of both Alibaba and Ant Group , vanished from public view when Ant's IPO was suspended in early November, but resurfaced in January 2021 in a 50-second video, appearing briefly via video link at the digitally facilitated Rural Teacher Initiative. As of February 2021, he has yet to be seen in public. The video appearance caused Alibaba stock to jump more than 7%. Jack Ma made

10191-458: The financial world to much fanfare, Softbank’s venture firm was crumbling and on the verge of collapse. Its large venture vehicles struggled badly, performing in the bottom of the asset class, and many of Son’s closest associates in the effort had departed from the company. In February 2023, Toyota Tsusho announced that it had bought the controlling interest in SB Energy, which would become

10320-560: The fine without making any appeal. On 11 November 2021, it was reported that over the course of its 11-day Singles' Day sales extravaganza, Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Group Holding received a record 540.3 billion yuan (S$ 114.4 billion) in orders, a 14 percent increase over the previous year. In July 2022, the SEC added Alibaba to a list of companies facing delisting from U.S. stock exchanges if its auditors remain unable to examine Alibaba's books before 2024. In December 2022,

10449-614: The first fund had invested in 88 companies including Coupang , Didi , Doordash , Fanatics , Grab , Oyo , Paytm Uber , and WeWork , but had experienced an awkward fall from grace as the COVID-19 pandemic and a Chinese regulatory crackdown accelerated the exposure of the Japanese investment management conglomerate's portfolio weaknesses. Son became noted as a stock investor after the meteoric rise of Alibaba Group . He had invested $ 20 million in Jack Ma 's Alibaba back in 2000 when it

10578-596: The first people in town to own a car. His family eventually moved out of the neighborhood so that Son could attend a better school. Son pursued his interests in business by securing a meeting with Japan McDonald's president Den Fujita . Taking his advice, Son began studying English and computer science . He left to study in the U.S. on Fujita's advice. At age 16, Son moved from Japan to California and lived with his friends and family in South San Francisco . He finished high school in three weeks by taking

10707-468: The global e-commerce system, so from 2003 onward, Alibaba launched Taobao Marketplace , Alipay , Alimama.com, and Lynx. When eBay announced its expansion into China in 2003, Ma viewed the American company as a foreign competitor and rejected eBay's buyout of Alibaba's subsidiary Taobao. By applying existing technologies, gaining trust in the Chinese e-commerce market, and expanding through dominating

10836-403: The group's stake in the hypermarket chain with a tootles ownership of 72%. Alibaba.com offers a paid Gold Supplier membership to try to ensure that each seller is genuine; sellers' Gold Supplier status and the number of years it has been held are displayed. The supplier verification types and checks are listed on Alibaba.com's website, with more stringent checks for sellers outside China. While

10965-545: The help of some professors including Forrest Mozer , Son created an electronic translator that he sold to Sharp Corporation for $ 1.7 million. He made another $ 1.5 million by importing used video game machines from Japan, on credit and installing them in dormitories and restaurants. Son graduated from Berkeley with a B.A. in Economics in 1980, and started a video game company called Unison World in Oakland, CA. He later sold

11094-432: The investment firm. To reflect this, the company name of SoftBank Corp. was changed to SoftBank Group Corp., and the company name of SoftBank Mobile Corp. was changed to SoftBank Corp. in 2015. However, even before the establishment of SoftBank Group Corp. as an entity devoted to investing in other companies, SoftBank Corp. as a telecom was regularly used by Son as an investment vehicle which experienced both successes (as in

11223-412: The largest domain registration service and web hosting service company in China, and built it into Alibaba Cloud. On 28 July 2011, Alibaba Cloud released AliOS (formerly Yun OS and Aliyun OS ), a Linux distribution designed for mobile devices. In the 2017 Computing Conference in Hangzhou, Alibaba launched AliGenie , a China-based open-platform intelligent personal assistant. It is currently used in

11352-607: The lawsuit. Alibaba is among the most prominent investors in Thailand's Eastern Economic Corridor , which was opened in 2018. Alibaba committed approximately US$ 320 million for the development of an e-commerce digital hub in the EEC. In January 2017, Alibaba and the International Olympic Committee jointly announced an $ 800 million deal that would last until 2028 where the company would sponsor

11481-514: The lowest close in around 6 months, following the antitrust investigation into the company by Chinese regulators. In December 2020, China's State Administration for Market Regulation (SAMR) stated that it opened an investigation into Alibaba over monopolistic practices. The country's central bank , as well as three other regulators, confirmed in a separate statement that the affiliated Ant Group would also be summoned for discussions over "competition and consumer rights", where regulators instructed

11610-438: The majority of suppliers are reported to be genuine, there have been many cases of sellers, some with Gold Supplier status, seeking to defraud unsuspecting buyers. In February 2011, controversy ensued when Alibaba's corporate office admitted that it had granted the mark of integrity of its "China Gold Supplier" program to more than 2,000 dealers that had subsequently defrauded buyers; the firm's share price dropped "abruptly" after

11739-520: The majority ownership due to a decision made by Softbank to sell off the stake to the local partner. For Q2 of 2020, the company's revenues were $ 12 billion. The firm announced that it would be arranging a new fund worth $ 555 million. The fund will be used to invest in various companies, including Amazon , Apple and Facebook . In September 2020, SoftBank Vision Fund 2 led a $ 100 million Series C round in Biofourmis. Also in September 2020, Softbank

11868-433: The market at a loss before making a return on additional services, Alibaba's subsidiaries outperformed eBay in the Chinese e-commerce market, claiming a growing percentage of consumers from eBay. Alibaba subsidiary Taobao would later force eBay out of the Chinese market, with eBay closing its unprofitable China Web unit, though the two companies would break even six years later. In 2005, Yahoo! invested in Alibaba through

11997-485: 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. In October 1999, SoftBank became a holding company . In 2000, SoftBank made its most successful investment – $ 20 million to a then-fledgling Chinese Internet venture called Alibaba . This investment turned into $ 60 billion when Alibaba went public in September 2014. In February 2000, SoftBank Ventures Asia

12126-660: The matter as saying that Alibaba was considering raising $ 20 billion through a second listing in Hong Kong. In November 2019, Alibaba raised 12.9 billion in its secondary listing in Hong Kong, which became the world's largest offering that year. On Tuesday, 10 September 2019, Jack Ma officially stepped down as the chairman of Alibaba, Daniel Zhang succeeded him at the head of the company. In November 2020, The Wall Street Journal reported that Chinese leader Xi Jinping personally scuttled Jack Ma's Ant Group IPO. Bo Zhuang, chief China economist at TS Lombard said that

12255-420: The new T-Mobile's shares, while 43% of shares are held by Deutsche Telekom. The remaining 33% will be held by others. In May 2020, Alibaba 's co-founder and former CEO Jack Ma resigned from the board. In July 2020, SoftBank announced that it was considering selling or IPOing British chip designer Arm Holdings , which has been in a feud with the Chinese over control of its local subsidiary, but it did not have

12384-738: The number of companies in his Vision Fund 2 portfolio in less than 9 months, SoftBank was cutting more deals with fewer staff than ever and the average investment amount per company had fallen from $ 943 million in Vision Fund 1 to $ 192 million in Vision Fund 2. In 2022, SoftBank Vision Fund posted a record 3.5 trillion yen loss ($ 27.4 billion) for its financial year ended on 31 March 2022 as the valuation of its stock portfolio plummeted. SoftBank's bad timing-prone, impulsive investment decisions regarding previously overhyped and consequently overvalued startups like Klarna , had plunged in value while some other investment firms had even been able to cash in before

12513-463: The number of stores with sales between ¥10 thousand and ¥1 million increased by 30%, and the number of stores with sales over ¥1 million increased by 33%. In April 2008, Taobao introduced a spin-off, Taobao Mall (淘宝商城, later Tmall.com), an online retail platform to complement the Taobao C2C portal, offering global brands to an increasingly affluent Chinese consumer base. It became

12642-450: The outcome of disputes on the platform. This decentralized approach was popular and similar mechanisms were adopted or experimented with by other e-commerce platforms in China. On 11 June 2014, Alibaba launched US shopping site 11 Main. The 11 Main marketplace hosts more than 1,000 merchants in categories such as clothing, fashion accessories and jewelry as well as interior goods and arts and crafts and it plans to keep adding more, said

12771-734: The principal investor in the fund, its Public Investment Fund (PIF) agreed to inject $ 45 billion into the Vision Fund over 5 years, becoming its largest investor. Other investors include Apple , Qualcomm , Arm , Foxconn , Sharp , Larry Ellison and Mubadala . The latter agreed to invest $ 15 billion dollars in the fund, targeting artificial intelligence, communications infrastructure, financial technology, consumer internet, mobile computing and robotics. Through Softbank Vision Fund, CEO Masayoshi Son explained his intent to invest in all companies developing technologies emphasizing global artificial intelligence , including sectors such as finance or transportation. In July 2019, SoftBank announced creating of

12900-465: The programme was unveiled, Softbank share price rose almost 19%. The program included a plan to repurchase ¥2tn of its shares in addition to the ¥500bn buyback it promised 10 days prior. Combined, SoftBank would be repurchasing 45% of its stock. On April 1, 2020, Sprint completed its merger of Sprint Corporation and T-Mobile US,, which was majority-owned by Deutsche Telekom, leaving T-Mobile the parent company. The merger also led to Softbank holding 24% of

13029-539: The record on the 2018 edition of China's Singles' Day , the world's biggest online and offline shopping day. The company's name came from the character Ali Baba from the Middle Eastern folk-tale collection One Thousand and One Nights because of its universal appeal. As Jack Ma , one of the founders, replied to Lorraine Hahn on TalkAsia : One day I was in San Francisco in a coffee shop, and I

13158-458: The required exams at Serramonte High . Son attended the University of California, Berkeley where he studied economics and computer science majoring in economics. At age 19, Son became confident that computer technology would ignite the next commercial revolution after being impressed by a microchip featured in a magazine. He began his first business endeavours while still a student. With

13287-580: 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. On 18 May 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 Snapdeal by Flipkart . On 10 August 2017, Softbank invested $ 2.5 billion in Flipkart. On 27 May 2017, Softbank and

13416-530: The sale of Boston Dynamics (robotics companies whose products include BigDog ) to SoftBank Group for an undisclosed sum. On 25 August 2017, SoftBank finalized a $ 4.4 billion investment in WeWork. On 24 October 2017, Son announced the group would collaborate with Saudi Arabia to develop Neom , the new high-tech business and industrial city of the Saudi Kingdom. On 14 November 2017, Softbank agreed to invest $ 10 billion into Uber . On 29 December 2017, it

13545-713: The second-largest IPO ever made. In December 2018, SoftBank invested in ParkJockey . The startup attempts to monetize parking lots. After the investment round, general valuation of the ParkJourney reached $ 1 billion. In December 2018, SoftBank announced its intention to invest $ 1 billion on ride-hailing startup Grab . Some sources said that the total amount of investment could reach $ 1.5 billion. On September 25, 2019, Softbank Robotics launched Whiz robotic vacuum cleaner in Singapore. In September 2019, WeWork's IPO

13674-662: The siblings. His youngest brother, Taizo Son , is a serial entrepreneur and investor, having founded GungHo Online Entertainment and the venture capital firm Mistletoe. When he went to the United States at 16 to attend high school and then the University of California Berkeley, he decided to use his real Korean surname. "If I had stayed all the time in Japan, Mr. Son said, I probably would have become much more conservative, just as other Japanese." Alibaba Group Alibaba Group Holding Limited , branded as Alibaba ( / ˌ æ l i ˈ b ɑː b ə , ˌ ɑː -/ ),

13803-466: 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. 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. On 16 February 2016, SoftBank announced they would repurchase

13932-513: The startups' comedown to reap hundreds of millions of dollars in profit. In August 2022, Masayoshi Son said he was "embarrassed" and "ashamed" when asked to talk about the way he had run the SoftBank Vision Fund and Barron's characterized the fund as a "failed experiment" while The Wall Street Journal called SoftBank a "big loser" and Bloomberg elaborated on "Masayoshi Son's broken business model". By November 2022, according to

14061-458: The store chain private. Alibaba's stake—28% from 2014's US$ 692 million investment—would rise to about 74% after the deal. In April 2014, Alibaba invested in Lyft, along with Coatue Management , and Andreessen Horowitz ; they led a US$ 250 million Series D financing round. On 5 June 2014, Alibaba bought a 50% stake of Guangzhou Evergrande F.C. from Evergrande Real Estate Group Ltd. in

14190-419: The suspension "forms part of a wider political drive as the leadership seeks to widen and consolidate its control over finance and technology". What followed was an unexpected Chinese government-released draft on 10 November 2020, which gives regulatory authorities a wider latitude to regulate their biggest tech enterprises. In December 2020, the shares of Alibaba Group suffered a historic stock price crash to

14319-488: The then United States President-elect Donald Trump , chief executive Masayoshi Son announced SoftBank would be investing US$ 50 billion in the United States toward businesses creating 50,000 new jobs. 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 , in what could be among the first deals from its new $ 100 billion technology fund." On 20 March, SoftBank bought

14448-641: The total amount of the IPO to $ 25 billion. Alibaba and the underwriters of its IPO were sued in a California superior court in a consolidated class action lawsuit. The lawsuit was filed in October 2015 on behalf of investors who purchased Alibaba's American depositary shares alleging violations of the Securities Act . Alibaba reached a settlement agreement in December 2018, subject to court approval, in which it agreed to pay $ 75 million to settle

14577-433: The value of its assets reflecting a discount associated to tax liabilities, risk, past performance, losses, performance fees and high probability of occurrence of several haircuts given Son's poor track record while running the Vision Fund and high enthusiasm for investing vast sums in loss-making companies at eye-popping valuations. By October 2021, Masayoshi Son had accelerated the pace of his startup investments quintupling

14706-547: The world on the Forbes Global 2000 2020 list. In January 2018, Alibaba became the second Asian company to break the US$ 500 ;billion valuation mark, after its competitor Tencent . As of 2022 , Alibaba has the ninth-highest global brand valuation . Alibaba is one of the world's largest retailers and e-commerce companies . In 2020, it was also rated as the fifth-largest artificial intelligence company. It

14835-523: The world's largest and most popular online retail marketplaces, achieved a total transaction volume of 3 trillion yuan (US$ 478.6 billion). The company aims to double the transaction volume to 6 trillion yuan by 2020. As of February 2018 , Taobao reached 580 million monthly active users , while Tmall achieved 500 million monthly active users. It is also rapidly expanding its e-commerce network abroad. Alibaba has also announced that it will invest 100 billion yuan over five years to build

14964-611: Was a young Chinese startup company although regrettably passing up early opportunities to invest in both Amazon and Tesla . In addition, he raised his global profile as stock investor since starting Softbank Vision Fund in 2017, creating an unprecedented investment vehicle of almost $ 100 billion to back technology startups. But by 2021, he was still struggling to persuade investors of the value of his efforts, in part because of major losses with companies such as WeWork , OneWeb , Wirecard , OYO Rooms, Katerra or Greensill Capital , and SoftBank Group's own stock chronically traded far below

15093-424: Was canceled. In December 2019, Softbank sold its interest in dog-walking startup Wag at a loss. Tadashi Yanai , Fast Retailing 's CEO and Japan's richest man at the time, left the board after 18 years. In January 2020, multiple Softbank-funded startups started cutting their staff, including Getaround , Oyo, Rappi , Katerra and Zume . In February 2020, Elliott Management , an activist hedge fund, bought

15222-449: Was completed by 22 June. In June 2016, Nikesh Arora stepped down amidst pressure from investors. Board member Ron Fisher and Baer Capital Partners founder Alok Sama undertook Arora's overseas investment duties. One month later, Son announced the company's largest deal ever to buy British chip designer Arm Holdings for more than US$ 32 billion. This acquisition was completed on 5 September 2016. On 6 December 2016, after meeting with

15351-708: Was designed by T-Head and DAMO Academy (Alibaba's research team). Alibaba claim it is capable of 78,563 images per second (IPS) inference and 500 IPS/W in ResNet-50. The Hanguang 800 will be available to be rented on Alibaba Cloud. SoftBank 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, Japan which focuses on investment management . The group primarily invests in companies operating in technology that offer goods and services to customers in

15480-420: Was estimated to be ¥1.5 billion (US$ 235.7 million), which was only about 0.4 percent of their total sales figure of ¥400 billion (US$ 62.9 billion) that year, way below the industry average of 2 percent, according to iResearch estimates. According to Zhang Yu, the director of Taobao, between 2011 and 2013, the number of stores on Taobao with annual sales under ¥100 thousand increased by 60%;

15609-715: Was founded under the leadership of Masayoshi Son to focus on investment in Korean-based Internet companies. 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 markets. In April 2006, SoftBank purchased a 23% stake in Betfair , an Internet betting exchange. In August 2006, SoftBank sold all its shares of SBI Group to

15738-460: Was identified as the Nasdaq whale, where it bought stock options valued in the billions, betting on higher prices for the biggest technology companies. That month, SoftBank sold Brightstar Corporation to Brightstar Capital Partners for an undisclosed amount. American chip design company Nvidia announced plans on September 13, 2020, to acquire ARM from SoftBank, pending regulatory approval, for

15867-431: Was launching an emergency ¥4.5tn ($ 41bn) asset sale to fund a share buyback and debt reduction. The effort was initiated by Son in order to stem a collapse in the company’s share price due to the pandemic, "This programme will be the largest share buyback and will result in the largest increase in cash balance in the history of SBG [SoftBank Group], reflecting the firm and unwavering confidence we have in our business.". After

15996-448: Was overseas. In September 2023, Cainiao Smart Logistics Network Ltd., the logistics arm of Alibaba Group, has filed for its Hong Kong initial public offering, potentially making it among the first of the Chinese e-commerce leader's units to go public. The key trends for Alibaba are (as at the financial year ending March 31): Alibaba is viewed by the Chinese government as one of its national champion corporations. Alibaba supplies

16125-659: Was placed 45th on the Forbes magazine's list of the World's Most Powerful People . As of July 2024, Son ranks 55th on the Forbes 's list of The World's Billionaires and is #135 on the Bloomberg Billionaires Index . He had for many years the distinction of being the person who had lost the most money in history (more than $ 59bn during the dot com crash of 2000 alone, when his SoftBank shares plummeted),

16254-488: Was reported that a SoftBank-led consortium had invested $ 9 billion into Uber. The deal, to close in January 2018, would leave SoftBank as Uber's biggest shareholder, with a 15 percent stake. 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 . On 14 January 2018, Softbank's Vision Fund announced to invest $ 560 million in

16383-446: Was said to have placed the head of Alibaba Group, Jack Ma—who was described as having been furious over the scandal—in a position to personally fight to win back trust. In 2013, Alibaba and six large Chinese logistics companies (including SF Express) established a company called Cainiao for delivery of packages in China. This network gradually grew to 14 local logistics companies in 2014. In 2016, Alibaba's Taobao and Tmall , two of

16512-459: Was thinking Alibaba is a good name. And then a waitress came, and I said do you know about Alibaba? And she said yes. I said what do you know about Alibaba, and she said ' Open Sesame .' And I said yes, this is the name! Then I went onto the street and found 30 people and asked them, 'Do you know Alibaba'? People from India, people from Germany, people from Tokyo and China. ... They all knew about Alibaba. Alibaba—open sesame. Alibaba—40 thieves. Alibaba

16641-419: Was worth $ 132 billion in 2018, including additional purchases of the stock since 2000. The morphing of his own telecom company SoftBank Corp. into an investment management firm called SoftBank Group Corp. made him noted worldwide as a stock investor . He is known for his bold investment strategies, sometimes resulting in major losses, particularly with the first and second SoftBank Vision Funds . In 2013, Son

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