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Technology Stocks : Softbank Group Corp -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Labrador who wrote (2291)	11/10/1999 10:23:00 AM
From: TobagoJack	Respond to of 6018

We have come a long way together since those dark but short days not so very long ago. Fun trip though.

To: Labrador who wrote (2291)	11/10/1999 10:32:00 AM
From: Seeker of Truth	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 6018

Well said, labrador. And netconductor: Trans-cosmos was a fairly ordinary programming shop. It's listed; I used to own it. Anybody that can invest in a would-be internet stock anywhere in the world, before its IPO, is a potential competitor to Softbank, BUT,BUT it's also a candidate for red ink even bankruptcy and it will take them a long while if ever to achieve synergy among the parts. Besides, the internet pie is enormous. The existence of CMGI,SFE and ICGE didn't stop 9984 from going up nine times in the last two years.

To: Labrador who wrote (2291)	11/10/1999 11:09:00 AM
From: TobagoJack	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 6018

The knights that say "nay" is still out there lurking in the shadows ... but the Son will shine on the darkness and smile upon us all ... FOCUS-Softbank elbows into Japan's top-10 firms By Yuko Inoue TOKYO, Nov 10 (Reuters) - Internet empire-builder Softbank Corp elbowed its way into Japan's top 10 firms in terms of market capitalisation this week, basking in a stunning rise in its share price despite some analysts' warnings of mounting risks. Softbank shares climbed to a record high on Wednesday, closing at 54,200 yen, up 7.54 percent or 3,800 yen. Investors counting on the huge potential of Internet-related businesses, gobbled up the stock and boosted its value eight-fold over the past ten months, analysts said. The stock has also been the top percentage gainer on the first section of the Tokyo Stock Exchange so far this year. In just five years after floating its shares, Softbank, with a market capitalisation of 5.79 trillion yen ($55.14 billion) at Wednesday's share price levels, has overtaken global household names like Honda Motor and consumer electronics giant Matsushita Electric Industrial, both symbols of Japan's post-war economic success. At the end of last year Softbank was in 87th place with a much more modest 705 billion yen in market value. Softbank's charismatic president Masayoshi Son has said his single biggest interest is increasing the group's market capitalisation. Softbank turned itself into an Internet investment fund in October, becoming a holding company for about 120 Internet-related companies. ``I'm not interested in yearly earnings anymore.... I want Softbank to become the world's top information company in terms of shareholder value,' Son said in a recent magazine interview. ``I predict Softbank will exceed Microsoft (NasdaqNM:MSFT - news) in terms of the ratio of market value added to equity in at most 10 to 15 years.' The meteoric rise in Softbank's stock has also made Son, with about a 40 percent stake in the company, one of the richest people in Japan. COUNTING ON UNREALISED GAINS Softbank's steep growth stems in part from its ability to shift its investment targets rapidly. Softbank, which was founded as a software supplier in 1981, transformed itself first into a conglomerate of personal computer-related businesses, and then into one of the world's leading Internet investment companies. The group now boasts massive unrealised gains in Internet-related holdings of 3.26 trillion yen, reflecting its canny investments on both sides of the Pacific, including a 32 percent stake in U.S. Web network Yahoo! Inc (NasdaqNM:YHOO - news) and 8.4 percent of E*Trade (NasdaqNM:EGRP - news). Son also plans to invest heavily on a global basis in the next decade using those unrealised gains, aiming to take stakes in 780 companies. Son also recently made headlines by linking with Nasdaq to create Nasdaq Japan, an Internet-based stock exchange to funnel capital to technology-oriented start-ups in Japan. OPINION DIVIDED ON RISK Analysts agree that the biggest risk to Softbank's stock price would be a sharp slide in Internet-related shares in the United States, which could make it difficult for the company to repay its debt of 444 billion yen as of the end of March. But opinions are divided on the outlook for Softbank's financial condition. Although some analysts say Softbank would be able to repay its debts by selling its Internet-related holdings even if U.S. share prices collapse, Makoto Ueno, an analyst at Daiwa Institute of Research, says Softbank will lose its shine in the market if it is forced to unload those holdings. Moody's Investors Service Japan is conducting a review on whether to upgrade Softbank's debt rating, now at the speculative grade of B1. Moody's Vice President Tatsuya Mizuno said that, although Softbank's cash flow is increasing, the outlook is still uncertain. Softbank will announce business results for the half-year to September 30 on Friday. It expects an eight billion yen net loss for the period, reflecting previously announced losses on the sale of U.S. motherboard maker Kingston Technology Co and interest-related costs at its Ziff-Davis Inc publishing unit in the United States.