Internet business investor Softbank Corp. said Thursday it has sold a part of its stake in Internet portal Yahoo! Inc. and wireless equipment maker UTStarcom Inc., both of the United States, to reduce its interest-bearing liabilities and expand its broadband operations.
The selloff of 30 million Yahoo! shares, worth $270 million, and 6 million UTStarcom shares, worth $72 million, was made by Softbank America Inc., a wholly owned unit of the Tokyo-based firm, it said.
This lowered Softbank America's stake in Yahoo! to 9 percent from 14 percent, and in UTStarcom to 26 percent from 31 percent, Softbank said. But the company remains California-based UTStarcom's largest shareholder, it said.
"UTStarcom will continue to be an important business partner of BB Technologies Corp.," Softbank said in a statement.
BB Technologies, wholly owned by Softbank, is in charge of providing infrastructure and technical support for the Softbank group's Yahoo!BB broadband Internet access service, on which the group is currently concentrating.