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

To: Edwin S. Fujinaka who wrote (4065)	2/23/2000 2:39:00 AM
From: Edwin S. Fujinaka	Respond to of 6018

Softbank closes at $1426 equivalent in Tokyo. Also a little more stuff on the competitive venture capital activity in Japan: Wednesday, February 23, 2000 Itochu To Offer Net Business Ideas To Other Firms TOKYO (Nikkei)--Itochu Corp. (8001) will try to sell promising employee-generated Internet-related business ideas which the company and its affiliates have rejected, Itochu sources said Tuesday. The Osaka-based leading trading company is currently examining more than 50 such business proposals from employees. But as the company expects that no more than five of the proposals will be actively implemented by the Itochu group, it will market some of the other ideas to Sony Corp. (6758), Softbank Corp. (9984) and other Net-related companies. Itochu will consider transferring the staff who came up with the business proposals to start-up firms created outside its group in addition to investing as a minority shareholder, the sources added. Only a handful of business ideas ever reach fruition, with most of them dying on the vine inside corporate walls. (The Nihon Keizai Shimbun Wednesday morning edition) -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Tuesday, February 22, 2000 IT Rewards Create New Rivalries In Venture Capital Market TOKYO (Nikkei)--The Internet economy is producing a new breed of venture capitalists, in the form of management consulting firms and think tanks. With an eye to the hefty capital gains that can be made from an Internet IPO, firms such as Nomura Research Institute Ltd. (NRI) and Andersen Consulting are not only contributing capital to new start-ups, but are increasingly playing a direct management role. In doing so, they are going head to head with companies like Fujitsu Ltd. (6702) and Softbank Corp. (9984). An announcement by Seven-Eleven Japan Co. (8183) on Feb. 1 created a stir in the information technology (IT) sector. The company revealed that the president of 7 dream.com, the e-commerce venture it is setting up with Sony Corp. (6758) and six other companies, would be former NRI research chief Shiro Komi. With a 13% stake, NRI is also a major investor in the new venture. Part of the Nomura Securities Co. (8604) group, NRI is known as Japan's leading think tank. But it also started several Net-related businesses way back in 1992, and is now a major systems integrator, building information systems for corporate clients. "We are concentrating our human resources and funds on Internet businesses," says NRI President Shozo Hashimoto. NRI will be hired to build the systems that will be at the center of 7 dream.com. Overseas, the story is similar. Andersen Consulting, the world's largest consulting group, plans to invest 1.2 billion dollars in Net ventures in the next three years. The firm has already set up Dot-Com Launch Centers in 17 cities around the world. Traditionally, think tanks and consulting firms have avoided becoming too closely involved in the management of clients so as not to limit their potential customer base. There was also the fear that getting too entangled with clients would prevent objective analysis. So why the change in heart? One reason is the potentially huge monetary reward. Close ties with clients promise future revenue streams from systems operations or upgrades. An equity stake also has the potential to yield enormous capital gains when the venture goes public. A second aim is to stop their own people from leaving. In the last two or three years, consultants and think tanks have suffered a growing drain of key personnel, lured away by the promise of fat rewards at Internet start-ups. A loss of competitiveness awaits, unless some means of sharing the spoils of success is adopted. But the move by consultants into systems development and operation, as well as into the venture capital market, is giving them an entirely new set of competitors. Toshiro Kawamura, in charge of financial sector systems at NEC Corp. (6701), is blunt about it: "Consulting firms are our enemy." NEC is aggressively chasing the systems business of financial institutions, planning to double by next fiscal year the number of systems engineers it employs that specialize in the financial sector. Fujitsu has a strong track record of providing systems expertise to the financial and retail sectors. It is now trying to leverage that know-how into management consulting, coming at the market from the opposite direction to consulting firms looking to expand into systems development. The confrontation between consultants and traditional computer companies will only intensify as the rich rewards of the IT sector continue to tear down barriers between industries and create new competitive relationships. (The Nikkei Industrial Daily Tuesday edition) --------------------------------------------------------------------------------