Softbank actually closed down a little in Tokyo to $858 US. It also opened down in Frankfurt but it was at $880 US. Both of these markets are below the last trade in the US at $900. This in spite of a limit up for Yahoo Japan which reported a big jump in profits (Recall that Softbank owns over 50% of Yahoo Japan):
Friday, January 14, 2000
Yahoo Japan 3rd Quarter Pretax Profit Jumps 427%; To Conduct Stock Split
TOKYO (Dow Jones)--Yahoo Japan Corp. (4689) Friday reported a parent pretax profit of 584.4 million yen for the third quarter of the fiscal year ending March, up 427% from a year ago.
This is the sixth straight quarter that the Web portal had record parent profit and revenue, the company said.
Yahoo Japan reported parent revenues of 1.61 billion yen for the quarter ended Dec. 31, 1999, up 212% from a year ago, the company said.
Yahoo Japan especially credited a sharp rise in the number and size of online advertisements, which resulted in advertisement revenues of 1.52 billion yen in the quarter, up 284% on year.
In addition to ongoing business with automakers, financial firms and communications companies, Yahoo Japan said restaurants, transportation companies and leisure businesses, as well as home appliances and audio and visual equipment makers, started placing advertisements on the Internet.
Large-sized orders were especially strong during the third quarter, Yahoo Japan said.
In December 1999 the site was accessed 1.23 billion times, up 15% from September and 190% from December 1998, Yahoo Japan said.
Yahoo Japan President and CEO Masahiro Inoue said at a news conference that he expects companies to launch into last-minute spending on advertisements towards the end of the current fiscal year.
"We expect our earnings in March to top our December results as we've always seen the last month of each quarter doing better than three months earlier," he said.
"So far this month has been slow, mainly due to new year holidays. However, companies are apparently beginning to realize they are not doing as bad as they initially imagined, and these companies will probably try to spend the money they've saved ahead of the fiscal year end," Inoue said.
He declined to comment whether the company is likely to renew its record pretax profit and revenues in the January-March quarter.
Yahoo Japan also said it plans to execute a 2-for-1 stock split on May 19, based on the list of shareholders as of March 31.
The stock split is aimed at improving liquidity and making the stock more affordable for individual investors, Yahoo Japan Director and Chief Financial Officer Akira Kajikawa said.
Quarter Ended Dec. 31:
PARENT 1999 1998
Revenue Y1.61 bln Y517 mln
Operating Profit 586 mln 108 mln
Pretax Profit 584 mln 111 mln
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Corporate Profiles:
YAHOO JAPAN(4689)
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