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BUSINESS / Companies
Feb 15, 2014

Rakuten acquires Viber web phone/messaging service for $900 million

Rakuten Inc., the Japanese online retailer controlled by billionaire Hiroshi Mikitani, is buying the Viber Internet messaging and calling service for $900 million as it moves into social networking.
BUSINESS / Companies
Dec 18, 2013

Sony exploring sale of Gracenote audio-recognition service

Sony Corp., looking to shed units to focus on fewer products, hired Frank Quattrone's Qatalyst Partners to explore a sale of its Gracenote audio-recognition software business, two sources said.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Oct 13, 2013

Straitjacket Japan could use more brawling billionaires to lead the way

Japan is being treated to a juicy spectacle as two of its richest and most innovative entrepreneurs brawl in public over Internet market share and visions for the future. But what's most important about the fight between Masayoshi Son and Hiroshi Mikitani is the example it's setting.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Aug 6, 2013

Tokyo real estate lures Asian bargain hunters

When Julia Chang, a 48-year-old Taiwanese who divides her time between Taiwan and Tokyo, decided to diversify her family's overseas investments, she settled on real estate in the Japanese capital, where prices have slumped for two decades.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Companies
May 15, 2013

Sharp sniffs profit via LCDs for Samsung

Sharp Corp. forecast its first annual profit in three years as Japan's largest maker of liquid-crystal displays expects orders to recover after signing a deal with Samsung Electronics Co.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Nov 6, 2012

Loss forecast may send Sharp to government purse

Sharp Corp. may turn to the last resort for Japanese companies facing potential bankruptcy — the government.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Oct 13, 2012

Softbank's Sprint quest may alter U.S. sector

Softbank Corp. is in talks with Sprint Nextel Corp. over a "substantial" investment to take control of the Kansas-based company, in a move that could potentially reshape the U.S. telecommunications industry, two sources said Thursday.
BUSINESS
Oct 15, 2011

Goldman surges as M&A adviser

Goldman Sachs Group Inc. is on its way to taking the top spot among advisers on Japanese takeovers for the first time in five years, supplanting Nomura Holdings Inc., as companies striving to compete globally turn increasingly to foreign investment banks.
BUSINESS
Sep 10, 2011

IPOs to boom on quake rebound

Initial public offerings in Japan will climb to the highest in three years as investors regain confidence sapped by the March 11 earthquake and tsunami, according to Nomura Holdings Inc., the top-ranked arranger of Japanese stock sales.
BUSINESS
Jul 15, 2011

Nikko said gearing up for IPO March 31

Nikko Asset Management Co. began this week choosing lead underwriters for an initial public offering less than two years after Sumitomo Trust and Banking Co. purchased the firm, three sources said.
BUSINESS
Jul 31, 2010

Nomura hires 40 students on triple pay to be global bankers

Nomura Holdings Inc., Japan's biggest securities firm, offered jobs to 40 students at triple the normal starting salary under a new plan to strengthen its international business, two sources said.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Dec 30, 2009

SMFG to 'examine' possible share offering

Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group Inc. will consider whether to sell more stock after regulators have called for tighter capital standards and larger rival Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Inc. raised ¥1 trillion.
BUSINESS
Oct 16, 2009

Financial firms to slash graduate hiring by almost half next year

Nomura Holdings Inc., Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Inc. and their biggest rivals plan to cut hiring of university graduates by almost half, just as the industry begins emerging from its deepest slump in seven decades.
JAPAN
Sep 16, 2009

Credit Saison to maintain independence

Credit card firm Credit Saison Co., 14.3 percent owned by Mizuho Financial Group Inc., will remain independent of the bank as its rivals join up with the country's biggest lenders.
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
Apr 28, 2009

Corporate bankruptcy, the Japanese way

Ever since U.S. financial services giant Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. collapsed in September, in what many have called the worst corporate failure in U.S. history, the global economy has been heading south.
BUSINESS
Apr 23, 2009

Big banks may have to seek state funds: Fitch

Japan's biggest banks may need to accept funds from the government as bad debts increase and investors demand higher capital standards, according to Fitch Ratings Ltd.
Japan Times
JAPAN / ALSO OUT THERE
Apr 2, 2009

¥1 deals redrawing netbook PC market

Personal computers for as little as ¥1 are currently on sale, attracting flocks of customers and sending shock waves through Japanese PC makers.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Mar 27, 2009

As slump bites deeper, shoppers warm to no-name foreign gadgets

The recession is causing a massive consumer shift: No longer do Japan's famously finicky and brand-conscious shoppers assume imported and no-name electronics are as cheap in quality as they are in price.
BUSINESS
Mar 14, 2009

Latest insurance merger may not be industry's last

The merger announced Friday by nonlife insurers Sompo Japan Insurance Inc. and Nipponkoa Insurance Co. comes at a time when slumping car and house sales and the global financial crisis are squeezing the industry for profits, analysts said.
BUSINESS
Nov 1, 2008

Mizuho cuts full-year profit forecast by 55%

Mizuho Financial Group Inc., Japan's second-biggest bank by revenue, cut its full-year profit forecast by 55 percent because of losses on investments and rising bad-loan costs.
BUSINESS
Oct 30, 2008

SMFG to acquire 2% stake in KB Group

Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group Inc. said Wednesday it will buy at least 2 percent of South Korea's KB Financial Group Inc.
BUSINESS
Sep 18, 2008

Lehman-linked losses could hit ¥245 billion

Japan's banks and insurers, including Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Inc., announced a combined ¥245 billion of potential losses tied to the collapse of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Apr 1, 2008

Defiant Elpida plans to hike chip prices by 20%

Computer-memory maker Elpida Memory Inc. plans to raise prices 20 percent in April, Chief Executive Officer Yukio Sakamoto said, defying the glut that drove chip makers to record losses in the $31 billion market.
BUSINESS
Feb 13, 2008

Daiwa SMBC to invest ¥200 billion more

Daiwa Securities SMBC Co. plans to invest about ¥200 billion of its own money in the coming year to restore profit that has been battered by a slump in underwriting fees.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Sep 5, 2006

Future of Japan securities reform at stake

As the trial of Japan's most famous dot-com entrepreneur opened Monday, a much wider issue was also before the court: the nation's tenuous shift toward a more freewheeling market economy.

Longform

A small shrine perched atop rocks braves the waves hitting the shoreline during a storm in Shimoda, Shizuoka Prefecture. The area is under threat of a possible 31-meter-high tsunami if an earthquake strikes the nearby Nankai Trough.
If the 'Big One' hits, this city could face a 31-meter-high tsunami