Softbank President Decides to Focus on Yahoo Japan

Softbank President Masayoshi Son or Son Jeong-ui has had difficulty due to the slowdown of the IT industry. As a result, he sold off all his shares.

Japan’s Nihon Keizai Shimbun reported on April 12 that Saberas, an American investment company, decided to purchase 49% of Japan’s Aozora Bank shares at 100 billion yen (about 1 trillion won) from Son’s Softbank and applied for the approval of the Financial Services Agency (FSA).

President Son acquired the beleaguered bank in August 2000 in an attempt to advance into the financial sector. However, as the holding company of Softbank’s management worsened due to the sluggish IT industry, he had to withdraw from the sector.

Currently, Softbank is having trouble securing new funds from banks because its debt surged to 307 billion yen at the end of September last year. The company announced its plan to sell 8.5% of Yahoo Japan’s shares last month.

Due to the sale of Aozora Bank shares, Son secured 100 billion yen to save the cash-strapped company. However, some complain that he broke his promise to keep the shares of the bank for at least three years. The Japanese IT industry predicts that Son will give up all related businesses and concentrate on the multimedia database telecommunication services of Yahoo Japan, the only devoted company in effect.

parkwj@donga.com