SoftBank overview

Softbank is a Japanese multinational conglomerate holding company. It was established by Masayoshi Son in September 1981 and is headquartered in Tokyo, Japan. It is one of the largest public company's in the world.

Softbank has stakes in multiple companies around the world, including Softbank Corp, Alibaba, Yahoo Japan, Uber, Didi Chuxing, Ola, Slack, Ping An, Paytm, and WeWork. It has made notably large investments into some of these companies, including its 2017 $9bn investment into Uber, and its much-publicised, multi-billion dollar investments into co-working venture WeWork.

Softbank is internationally known for its Vision Fund and Vision Fund II. In 2017, Softbank partnered with the Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia to create the original Softbank Vision Fund, the largest private equity fund at a capital of $93bn. The fund's aim is the invest in companies developing AI technologies across various sectors. In July 2019, Vision Fund II was created, with investors including Apple and Microsoft. The fund would once again be AI-based, and ihas reportedly reached an investment of around $108bn.

SoftBank's multinational telecommunications and internet corporation focuses on broadband, fixed-line telecommunications, e-commerce, internet, technology services, finance, media and marketing, and other businesses. The company operates through four major segments: mobile communications, the 'sprint' segment, fixed line telecommunications and the internet.

SoftBank Corp. also generates and sells electricity from renewable energy sources; provides payment processing, invoice collections, and computation services for businesses; distributes video, voice, and data content via media; operates IT information site ITmedia; provides solutions and services for online businesses; and operates online games and software downloads.

Softbank's revenue was reported at ¥9.15tr in 2018. It has around 75,000 employees.

In November 2018, Softbank announced it will make an IPO. The move would value Softbank at $21.15bn, the second largest IPO in history.

In 2020 the Japanese tech giant began to shed assets worth of up $41bn to fund a share buyback and cut debt. With stakes in Sprint, Alibaba, Paytm, Ola and many other successful brands the move has been welcomed by investors and potential buyers. The move came after the Covid-19 caused a global impact on the economy, and the company's $100bn Vision Fund recorded two consecutive quarters of losses.

In 2020, SoftBank posted a $13bn loss for FY 2019, in thanks to a $17.7bn loss on valuation from its Vision Fund. It lost almost $10bn from Uber and WeWork investments alone.

SoftBank announced it would invest at least $150k into 14 companies run by founders from minorities as part of its Emerge accelerator programme, in June 2020.

In October 2020, it was reported that SoftBank's Vision Fund was preparing a 'blank cheque acquisition company', with plans due to announced in the next few weeks.

In July 2021 private sources revealed SoftBank was planning to invest $5bn into LatAm-based companies, with the new investment possibly used to create SoftBank Latin America Fund 2. The Japanese firm first stepped in the LatAm market in 2000 when it set up SoftBank Latin America Ventures to invest in startups in the region.

SoftBank was established by Masayoshi Son in September 1981 and is headquartered in Tokyo, Japan.

Map showing the location of SoftBank

Tokyo, Japan

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Key people

Sunil Bharti Mittal Member of the Board of Directors
Oketani Taku Managing Executive Officer
Jack Ma Member of the Board of Directors
Shu Nyatta Partner
Kentaro Matsui Investments Lead
Rajeev Misra Executive Vice President
Keigo Sugano Executive Officer
Abe Kenichiro Auditor
Yasuyuki Imai Representative Director & COO
Hideyuki Tsukuda Senior Vice President & CNO
Tomio Miyake Senior Vice President
Kirthiga Reddy Executive Partner
Miyagawa Junichi Representative Director, Vice President, Executive Officer & CTO
Jason Chudnofsky Member of the Board of Directors
Ralf Wenzel CEO TechHub
Makizono Keiichi Executive Officer & CIO
Ronald Fisher Member of the Board of Directors
Kosuge Yoshihiro Executive Officer
Terao Hiroyuki Executive Officer
Robert Takeuchi President
Junko Asakura Director of Integration Promotion Dept in IoT Engineering Strategy Division
Kunihiro Fujinaga Managing Executive Officer
Karim Abouzahr Director, SoftBank Europe Ventures
Sakuma Yoshiaki Executive Officer
Brian Conklin Managing Partner, Co-Head Global Government Affairs
Honda Kinya Senior Vice President
Kazuhiko Kasai Director
Kimikazu Kato Data Scientist
Kazuko Kimiwada Audit & Supervisory Board Membe
Paul Judge Investor
Yoshiaki Tanaka Director of Business Development
Sato Sadahiro Executive Officer & Senior Vice President
Takashima Kenichi Executive Officer
Manabu Miyasaka Director
Masayoshi Son Founder and CEO
Ken Miyauchi Member of the Board of Directors
Taizo Son Advisor
Shigeki (Sean) Miwa General Manager
Nikesh Arora Vice Chairman of the Board of Directors
Bruce Liu Academia Member
Deep Nishar Managing Director
Eric Gan Executive Vice President
Alex Clavel Partner
Lydia Jett Investor
Akshay Naheta Managing Director
Katsumasa Niki Advisor
Moaz Hamid Advisor (SB Robotics)
Andrew Kovacs Global Head of Communications
Shimba Jun Representative Director & COO
Karina Sobieski Partner, Human Capital Practice
Alok Garg Advisor - ICT Innovation - Cloud
Faisal Rahman Head of Operations, Middle East
Katsunori Sago Chief Strategy Officer and Executive Vice President
Eylul Kayin Vice President
Gary Ginsberg Global Head of Communications
Christin Tinsworth Baker Government and Policy Communications Manager
Tonya Williams Director of Government Affairs
Benjamin Bauer Chief Growth Officer @ OpsHub
Sarah Lubman Partner of Communications
Matt Steinfeld Director of Corporate Communications
Lee Bocker Chief Operating Officer
Chris Cooper Chief Financial Officer
Francisco Sorrentino Chief Human Resources Officer
Sven Grajetzki CPO TechHub
Konstantin Sorger CCO Tech Hub
Robert Townsend Senior Advisor
Nagraj Kashyap Managing Partner
Samantha Ouyang Member of the Masason Foundation