Softbank Corp. at a Glance
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Founded: 1981 by Masayoshi Son.
* Capital: 55 billion yen, or $520 million, as of April.
* Headquarters: Tokyo.
* Business: Largest distributor of personal computer software in Japan.
* Growth strategy: Investments in and acquisitions of both established companies and start-ups.
* Acquisitions: Ziff-Davis Publishing Co., the world’s largest computer trade publisher, which puts out PC Magazine, Computer Shopper and other publications. Two major U.S. computer trade show companies--Comdex and ZD Expos.
* Investments: Largest shareholder in Yahoo Inc., which helps personal computer users find information on the World Wide Web. It also has a joint venture, Yahoo Japan, which offers the Japanese-language version of the search engine. In February, acquired a 9.9% stake in CyberCash Inc. of the United States to break into the business of electronic transactions, or payments for purchases by personal computer.
* Joint ventures: With Microsoft Corp. to market business application software in Japan. With Sega Enterprises, formed a U.S. company to sell arcade and home video games software for use on personal computers using Windows 95.
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