Poophead vs Puke -- nobody wins
Billionaire Cannibals Wipe Out $4 Billion in Son-Mikitani Fightbloomberg.com / Oct. 9, 2013
Billionaire Masayoshi Son, Japan’s second-richest person, mounted an attack on the next wealthiest, Hiroshi Mikitani, wiping out a combined $4.3 billion in their companies’ market values.
Son, chairman of Yahoo Japan Corp. (4689), eliminated fees the Internet search and shopping business charges for online stores. The move is a direct challenge to Mikitani’s Rakuten Inc. (4755), the country’s largest Internet shopping mall.
The rivalry pits Rakuten’s model of charging businesses fees to operate shops in its online mall against Son’s portal and retail site, which got more than half of revenue last fiscal year from advertising. Investors bet the earnings of both companies will suffer, sending Rakuten plunging 12 percent in Tokyo trading yesterday. Yahoo Japan slumped 6.5 percent.
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