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To: craig crawford who wrote (14172)	10/2/1998 8:06:00 AM
From: StormRider	Respond to of 27307

a little OT: Friday October 2, 6:18 am Eastern Time Japan's Softbank expands again, acquires brokerage By Yuzo Saeki TOKYO, Oct 2 (Reuters) - Japan's hungry Softbank Corp said on Friday it was buying a mid-sized Japanese brokerage, opening a new chapter in the company's aggressive acquisition saga. Softbank, whose expansion in recent years has left it with a 31 percent stake in Yahoo! Inc of the United States, said its online securities trading subsidiary ETrade had agreed with shareholders of Osawa Securities Co Ltd to acquire all of the company's shares. ''We were able to obtain a brokerage licence as well as a membership of the Tokyo Stock Exchange immediately through the acquisition of the going concern,'' said Yoshitaka Kitao, a Softbank managing director. Kitao declined to disclose the value of the purchase. He said ETrade did not immediately plan to drastically change the basic structure of Osawa Securities, which currently has five branches and 65 workers, and would continue to provide services to existing clients. Osawa Securities is expected to change its name to ETrade Securities and begin on-line broking services by the end of this year, Kitao said. Although the new brokerage operation will focus on over-the-counter issues, it will also conduct business in shares traded on the Tokyo Stock Exchange as well as bonds and investment trusts, he said. ''We aim to offer one-stop shopping for financial products on the Web,'' Kitao said. He said online trading of stocks was only one of many financial services Softbank aimed to offer through its business holdings and that it hoped eventually to add insurance services to its product line. Tokyo-based Osawa Securities had net assets of 1.4 billion yen ($10.4 million) at the end of March, but had posted a net loss of 276 million yen in 1997/98, marking seven straight years of net losses. ETrade is a joint venture between Softbank and ETrade Group Inc of the United States. ETrade, which was formed in June, is capitalised at 2.7 billion yen and is 58 percent owned by Softbank. Kitao also said ETrade plans to form a joint venture with a South Korean securities firm. He said the company has several candidates in mind for the joint venture, which would be equally owned by the partners. ETrade was also seeking partners in Hong Kong, mainland China, and Southeast Asian countries to offer on-line broking services in the region, he said. Softbank, which sells sells computer software and magazines in Japan, has been pursuing an expansion-through-acquisition policy under the leadership of charismatic entrepreneur Masayoshi Son. The company's major acquisitions include the $2.1 billion purchase of Ziff-Davis, a U.S. personal computer magazine publisher. In addition to its core software business, Softbank is also a partner with Rupert Murdoch in the JSkyB satellite television service in Japan and is a major Internet service provider.