Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Technology Stocks : Altaba Inc. (formerly Yahoo) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Dwight E. Karlsen who wrote (20087)	2/17/1999 1:43:00 AM
From: Islander	Respond to of 27307

Top Financial News Wed, 17 Feb 1999, 1:27am EST Softbank Sells 2% of Yahoo! for $410 Mln to Finance Internet Investments Softbank Reduces Stake in Yahoo, Sees Profit Tripling (Update1) (Rewrites throughout, includes analyst's comment in 4THparagraph.) Tokyo, Feb. 17 (Bloomberg) -- Softbank Corp., Japan's top software distributor and a major shareholder in dozens of Internet ventures, said it sold part of its stake in Yahoo! Inc. to finance new investments. The move will also help the company triple group profit this year. Softbank's U.S. holding company sold 3 million shares in the world's most-visited Internet directory for $410 million, reducing its stake to 28 percent from 30 percent and recording a capital gain of $390 million. Softbank, which has accumulated several billion dollars in paper gains on a series of early investments in Yahoo! and other fast-growing Internet services, said it plans to set up a new fund to add other online ventures to its portfolio. ''We believe the Internet continues to represent an enormously attractive opportunity,'' said Softbank in a statement. It remains Yahoo's largest shareholder with 56.3 million shares. ''They've already won on their bet on Yahoo, so lowering their stake to wager elsewhere is probably the right move,'' said Satoshi Hirachi, a software industry analyst at Societe Generale Securities (North Pacific) Ltd. ''They're throwing money at almost every Internet business with any sort of potential, and I think a considerable number will turn out to be winners.'' Softbank said the sale of Yahoo shares will contribute to a group profit of 32 billion yen ($270 million) in the year through March, plugging a drain on earnings by its U.S. publishing subsidiary. That's almost three times the 10.3 billion yen profit posted last year by Softbank and 48 of its affiliates. The company had not previously issued a group profit forecast for this year. Ziff-Davis Inc., a publisher of popular computer magazines that Softbank bought for $2.1 billion in 1996, will record a one- time charge of about $57 million as it restructures its operations, forcing Softbank to post a pretax group loss of 15 billion yen. Softbank said last month it had accumulated paper gains of almost $11.9 billion on investments in seven U.S. and two Japanese Internet companies. Those gains have pushed up Softbank's shares 80 percent in the past year and allowed it both to finance new investments and offset sluggish performance by its software distribution and publishing operations. Yahoo shares yesterday tumbled 11.67 percent, their biggest percentage fall since Oct. 1. They've risen more than eightfold in the last 12 months on optimism about the profit prospects for online businesses, though some investors and analysts have warned that Internet-related shares are overvalued and may be poised to crash. Separately, Softbank raised to 10 billion yen from 8.45 billion yen its parent-company profit forecast for the year through March, citing a recovery in personal computer sales to Japanese consumers and successful cost-cutting efforts. Softbank shares recently traded at 7,880 yen, down 250 yen. They rose as high as 100 yen to 8,230 immediately after the company's announcement. ©1999 Bloomberg, LP.