NEWSWORTHY
Leading Southeast Asian ride-hailing provider Grab raised about $1.5 billion from SoftBank Group Corp.'s Vision Fund, bankrolling its effort to expand into new services across the region. The funding brings the amount of money the company has collected from investors in the past year to ...
With first launch in space-based internet project, Airbus and OneWeb aim for new satellite era
A rocket carrying six satellites built by Airbus SE and partner OneWeb blasted off from French Guiana on Wednesday, the first step in a plan to give millions of people in remote and rural areas high-speed internet beamed down from space. A successful launch could ...
Japan's top three mobile carriers and Rakuten apply for 5G band allocation
The country's three major mobile carriers and e-commerce operator Rakuten Inc. have applied for the allocation of a mobile phone frequency band to introduce next-generation 5G wireless services, the communications ministry said Tuesday. The Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications will review plans by NTT ...
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SoftBank fund invests $940 million in Silicon Valley startup's self-driving delivery vehicles
A Silicon Valley startup working on self-driving delivery vehicles has announced nearly a billion dollars in fresh funding from the SoftBank Vision Fund. The $940 million in financing from SoftBank brought the total amount of funding raised by Nuro to more than $1 billion, with ...
Masayoshi Son: Betting big and winning
There's a well-known anecdote about Masayoshi Son, the maverick billionaire founder and chief executive of SoftBank Group Corp. and the man behind the world's largest technology investment fund.
SoftBank Group reports 62% jump in operating profit, rising to record high
SoftBank Group Corp. on Wednesday reported robust earnings for the April-December period, crediting positive returns on investments in other businesses and ventures. The group’s operating profit rose to a record ¥1.85 trillion, a rise of 62 percent compared to the same period the previous year. ...
PayPay to launch second rebate campaign valued at ¥10 billion
Japan-based smartphone payment service provider PayPay Corp. says it will launch another campaign Feb. 12 to give its users reward points worth a total of ¥10 billion. The campaign by the joint venture between SoftBank Group Corp. and Yahoo Japan Corp. will provide shoppers with ...
SoftBank's giant debt burden looks worse than it actually is, analysts say
As SoftBank Group Corp. continues its transformation into a giant investment fund, some analysts are increasingly watching a metric more familiar to lenders as they judge its creditworthiness. And by that gauge, they say, its massive debt pile looks manageable. SoftBank's loan-to-value ratio, its net ...
Japanese firms hopping on ride-hailing bandwagon in Southeast Asia
Japanese firms are involved in a clash of titans that is expected to intensify this year between two successful ride-hailing startups in Southeast Asia. Fierce competition is looming between Indonesia's Gojek and Singapore-based Grab, which is backed by companies including SoftBank Group Corp., Toyota Motor ...
WeWork's backers and staff can cash out in $2 billion SoftBank deal
WeWork Cos. will let investors and employees sell shares to SoftBank Group Corp. as part of the conglomerate's $2 billion investment in the real estate and coworking startup, the companies said Tuesday. WeWork also announced that it would be rebranding itself as The We ...
The Japan Times newsroom selected the following business news stories as the most important of 2018.
