Softbank Corp., Microsoft Corp., and Yahoo Japan Corp. announced Wednesday that they will establish a joint venture in April, capitalized at $7 million, offering a car-shopping information service for Japanese customers.
The new venture, to be named CarPoint Japan K.K., is a Japanese version of Microsoft's CarPoint, which they claim is the largest car-shopping information service on the Web. It will begin offering information on new cars come winter and will eventually expand its business to include used-car listings, the firms said.
Softbank, a Tokyo-based software distributor and investor in Web-related businesses, will own 50 percent of the new company, Microsoft 40 percent and Yahoo Japan 10 percent, the three firms said. The Web site of the new firm will offer information about cars and will help car dealers meet buyers' needs, the firms said.