No specific mention of us in that release. But it does mean that we are now an integral part of Softbank Global Ventures, to be headed by Ron Fischer. That means that Kitao, as SII CEO and chairman, will be reporting to Fischer, who will in turn report to Son.
But it looks as though Hippeau is now our man:
"All other markets outside of Japan are now organized under a newly- named unit, SOFTBANK International Ventures, headed up by Mr. Hippeau. Included in SBIV are: SOFTBANK Latin America Ventures, the partnership with the IFC of the World Bank called SOFTBANK Emerging Markets, the partnership with News Corp. in the UK called eVentures, the partnership with Vivendi for continental Europe called @viso, SOFTBANK Europe Ventures, SOFTBANK UK Ventures as well as units operating in China, India, Korea, Australia and New Zealand."
This is excellent news. It means that everything is official. We may even drop the new SII name, and replace it with SIV (Softbank Int'l Ventures), China.
They're obviously still sorting this out, but it just reconfirms that we are very, very early in this game. It's going to require some patience, but I think we are going to be extraordinarily well rewarded for it.
Yamakita |
