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  • fuckedgaijin ‹ General ‹ Tokyo Tech

Softbank Goes (For) Broke

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Softbank Goes (For) Broke

Postby Mulboyne » Thu Oct 26, 2006 8:57 am

[floatr]Image[/floatr]AFP: Softbank aims to be Japan's top cellphone operator within decade
Japanese Internet and telecoms company Softbank Corp. aims to be the country's largest cellphone operator within the next decade, its president Masayoshi Son said in an interview. "So far, our potential subscribers number in the tens of thousands. Expectations were that we would lose some of our subscribers to the competition, but our new flat-rate service for intra-network cell phone calls will change the user preferences in our favor"...Softbank this week announced an aggressive discount package including free calls between its subscribers as it attempts to reverse the flagging fortunes of the former Vodafone brand which trails well behind its main rivals...more...

Elsewhere, Son is reported to have said that he aims to make mobile charges in Japan "the lowest in the world". See also FG Thread: Vodaphone Flops in Japan.
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The problem I have

Postby canman » Thu Oct 26, 2006 9:21 am

Is that the free calls are only to other Softbank phones. So any business person dealing with a number of clients will still have to call the other big two, AU and DOCOMO, so its a not such a big deal, only the publicity right. Why not just reduce the cost of each call no matter what carrier you call.
I stil can't believe how cheap calls are back home. I was talking to my niece who has a package where all her calls in the evenings and weekends are free. IF she uses her phone during the weekday hours of 9-6 it is pretty high, but then again she is a college student sho its not a big inconvenience for her. Why couldn't Mr. Son come up with something like that.
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Postby IkemenTommy » Thu Oct 26, 2006 9:59 am

The idea works if everyone used the same carrier. For me, my peers use Docomo so that would not be an issue if Docomo actually had that plan. What pisses me off is how they make up for the free calls by charging an ass load when calling other mobile carriers.
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Postby gomichild » Thu Oct 26, 2006 12:17 pm

On the other hand - check out the jaw-dropping expensive prices on the new Softbank handsets...
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Postby Big Booger » Thu Oct 26, 2006 5:27 pm

When calling SoftBank Handsets. However, if the Voice Call calling time to SoftBank Handsets during 9:00PM to 12:59AM exceeds 200 minutes (total) in one billing month, the amount over 200 minutes will be charged at a rate of \20 (\21 incl. tax) for every 30 seconds.


Read the fine print. ;)
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Postby Mulboyne » Thu Oct 26, 2006 5:35 pm

Softbank doesn't have the financial resources to withstand a prolonged price war with Docomo and KDDi. Playing the plucky consumer's friend only really works on a small scale or for a short time.
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Postby IkemenTommy » Thu Oct 26, 2006 6:29 pm

They did the MNP in Hong Kong many years ago and the devastating results was less carriers at the end due to stiff competition. I feel that Softbank will be the next victim of this. We'll see..
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Postby Takechanpoo » Thu Oct 26, 2006 10:41 pm

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space is limited

Postby etto_neh » Wed Nov 01, 2006 3:31 pm

Anyone else getting those 'delete your shit now' messages at the tops of all emails now? I am, even though my phone's memory is around 1/2 full (i'm an optimist) and my server mail volume is reading 18%. Softbank growing pains perhaps?
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Postby Mulboyne » Thu Nov 23, 2006 8:40 am

FT: Goldman quits Softbank pact
Goldman Sachs has pulled out of the Y1,450bn refinancing for Softbank's acquisition of Vodafone Japan, raising fresh concerns about the Japanese communications group. Analysts say the US investment bank's move to quit the lending syndicate suggests it has misgivings about the terms of the loan, which is supported by revenues from the mobile arm..."[Goldman] has effectively said, 'right, we will never do business with Softbank again'," said one investor. Despite the setback, Softbank expects the refinancing to go ahead at the end of this month. Softbank said other lenders would fill the gap left by Goldman's departure...more...
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Postby Mulboyne » Thu Dec 14, 2006 11:35 am

Yomiuri: Complex pricing promotes wild claims
The Fair Trade Commission's warning to SoftBank Mobile Corp. and cautioning of three other telecommunications firms highlighted a common problem in the industry--that misleading advertising is rampant. What lies behind this is the complicated price structures of mobile phones that have become almost impossible to explain in simple terms. The FTC warned SoftBank Mobile about its campaign to advertise its "yen0" for calls and e-mail service, although in fact such services are limited to calls and messages between SoftBank Mobile users. It cautioned mobile phone firms NTT DoCoMo Inc. and KDDI Corp., and PHS operator Willcom Inc., saying that their advertisements also could have misled customers. NTT DoCoMo and KDDI have harshly criticized SoftBank Mobile's catchy campaigns, but the FTC concluded the advertisements for NTT DoCoMo and KDDI also were inappropriate under the Law against Unjustifiable Premium and Misleading Representation. This indicates the mobile phone industry has some fundamental problems with its advertising.

Advertisements for the four companies share some characteristics; they emphasize no-charge or other discount services without clarifying the terms and conditions for receiving these services. Although the KDDI advertisement claimed, "A discount of up to 50 percent for everyone," the small print said the basic fee would only be halved after the customer had used the phone for more than 10 years. NTT DoCoMo stated the monthly basic fee would be 1,575 yen, including tax. However, the company failed to say some customers would have to pay 2,362 yen. The FTC usually does not disclose names of firms that are cautioned, but the competition policy watchdog revealed the names of all the firms in question, urging them to reflect on their conduct.

To attract a wide range of customers, mobile phone companies have launched various discount services in accordance with different needs, resulting in complicated price structures. Since 2004, when it was decided to introduce Mobile Number Portability (MNP)--the system that allows a user to switch service providers without changing their cell phone number--firms have accelerated the expansion of discount services in an effort to hang on to customers. NTT DoCoMo has eight different basic price plans, depending on the frequency of phone calls or users' ages, while KDDI has seven. In addition, they have other discount services. Phone calls made between family members or friends are charged at a lower rate than regular phone calls, while those using cell phones over a certain period of time receive discounts on their basic price. For e-mails, some plans enable users who make a certain payment to send or receive unlimited e-mails. It is difficult to decide which company is the most reasonable.

After the introduction of MNP in October this year, "A mobile phone company should at least offer services that also are offered by its rivals so it doesn't lose customers," said Kenji Nishimura, a senior analyst at Daiwa Institute of Research. Even before the system was introduced, the firms started offering services that have become popular at other players in the industry. KDDI started in August a new service in which customers carry over unused no-charge calls for the next three months. This was to counter a similar service by NTT DoCoMo that allows customers to carry over their free calls for up to two months. Such competition further complicated the mobile phone companies' price structures.

Explaining complicated price structures accurately in simple words is no easy task. This was behind the spread of inappropriate advertising slogans in the industry. Tetsuya Okada, director of the premiums and representations inspection office at the FTC, said at a press conference Tuesday, "Although they adopt different strategies, mobile phone firms have the same tendency to highlight the benefits of their services while keeping any unappealing points in small print." Competition has intensified among mobile phone firms. As of the end of November, 94 million customers had mobile phone contracts, a number believed to be close to the saturation point. Mobile phone companies will have to battle to keep existing customers, which is one reason why they tend to make extravagant claims in advertisements to make their services more appealing to consumers.

The Internal Affairs and Communications Ministry instructed SoftBank Mobile, NTT DoCoMo and KDDI to create advertisements that are easy for customers to understand. The ministry also told the Telecommunications Carriers Association to inform its members of the ministry's request. SoftBank Mobile has expressed its willingness to establish rules regarding the matter. "We'd like to promote easy-to-understand expressions for the telecommunications industry as a whole," the company said in a written statement. It remains to be seen what kind of approaches will be adopted when the industry begins drawing up actual rules.
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Postby Mulboyne » Thu Mar 01, 2007 7:10 pm

Bloomberg: CLSA's Calder Sees `Red Flags' in Softbank Accounts
Softbank Corp., Japan's third-biggest wireless operator, may face increased regulatory scrutiny of its financial statements after changing auditors in July, CLSA said in a research report titled "Confidence Man." Softbank shares had their biggest one day fall in the last six months. The company could face a risk of restating its results given that former auditor ChuoAoyama PricewaterhouseCoopers also signed off on overstated earnings at Nikko Cordial Corp., CLSA said. Softbank said the report was "based on mistaken facts and speculation," in a statement to the Tokyo Stock Exchange today. "We examined Softbank's complex accounts and found a number of red flags that are so obvious that they could not possibly be ignored by incoming auditor Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu," Kieran Calder, an analyst at CLSA Asia Ltd., said in his report dated Feb. 27. "It must be increasingly probable that the Securities and Exchange Surveillance Commission too would be interested"...more...
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Postby Mulboyne » Wed Mar 07, 2007 10:31 am

Mulboyne wrote:Bloomberg: CLSA's Calder Sees `Red Flags' in Softbank Accounts

Reuters: Japan's Softbank to sue FT
Japanese Internet conglomerate Softbank said on Tuesday it will sue a brokerage over an analyst's report criticising its accounting practices and also the Financial Times newspaper, which published an article based on the report. Softbank shares lost $2 billion in market value last Thursday after the Financial Times said it was "facing increased regulatory scrutiny", citing points raised in the report by CLSA Asia-Pacific Markets, a unit of Calyon Securities. The brokerage report, dated February 27, said it found what it called "red flags" in Softbank's balance sheet and cash flow. Responding to a CLSA analyst's speculation that Softbank might correct past earnings after switching to new auditor Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu, Softbank said the accounting firm would not have signed off on its first-half financial statements, which it did, if there were any problems in its previous results. Softbank also said it was not under any investigation by Japan's Securities and Exchange Surveillance Commission...more...
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Postby Taro Toporific » Wed Mar 07, 2007 6:04 pm

Mulboyne wrote:Reuters: Japan's Softbank to sue FT
Damn, I hate it when Japan you get sued for telling the truth. Softbank's accounting is just as hinky as Horie/Livedoor scandal.:-|
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Postby Greji » Wed Mar 07, 2007 11:45 pm

Taro Toporific wrote:Damn, I hate it when Japan you get sued for telling the truth. Softbank's accounting is just as hinky as Horie/Livedoor scandal.:-|
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Yup, but Son is a Korean and so they're probably going to be too afraid to screw with him like they did Horiemon!
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Postby Doctor Stop » Thu Mar 08, 2007 12:06 am

gboothe wrote:Yup, but Son is a Korean and so they're probably going to be too afraid to screw with him like they did Horiemon!
:cool:
Son is a Japanese citizen.
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Postby Greji » Thu Mar 08, 2007 5:05 am

Doctor Stop wrote:Son is a Japanese citizen.


So is Debito. But, a goodly number of our J-friends will and do, look no farther than the Korean, or FG tag However, in Son's case, he's got enough dust stashed in his poke that they are afraid to confront him with a lot of things, because of his "Korean" heritage, if you will. Horie was a fellow J-person, one of their own, so when he got hung out there, they beat his ass like a step-child.
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Postby Ke11iente » Tue Apr 24, 2007 8:41 pm

I'm glad I found this thread. I was in Yamada Denki today debating about which carrier to choose. I really like the handset models that Softbank offers. But if the discount is only 50% after 10 years and it costs a lot to call other carriers, then I think I will go with either AU or docomo. The pricing structures are all reeeeeeally complicated and even more difficult because I don't speak very much Japanese yet.:wall:
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Postby TFG » Tue Apr 24, 2007 10:48 pm

I went with softbank a couple of months ago.
They gave me a new model phone for free, a 1GB mini SD card for the phone.
I love it, and most of the people I know are on this white plan which costs only 980 Yen a month. But calling other softbank phones between 1am and 9pm is absolutely FREE. This was reflected in the calls I was billed for after a made a few calls to non softbank phones. The bill was 280 Yen. And even the 980 Yen basic fee was waived for 3 months. The setup fee was 2,800 Yen or so.

I don't seen any problems with this.
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Postby emperor » Mon May 14, 2007 12:14 am

A LOW cost voice telephony service that's easily accessible from any mobile phone has just been launched by Mobivox. There's no downloads or software to install.
http://www.mobivox.com/

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Postby Mulboyne » Thu May 24, 2007 10:44 pm

Reuters: Japan's Softbank to sue FT

Bloomberg: Softbank, CLSA Settle Dispute Over `Confidence Man' Report
Softbank Corp., the telecommunications group controlled by billionaire Masayoshi Son, settled a dispute with CLSA Asia-Pacific Markets over a research report in February that questioned the Japanese company's accounting practices. Softbank dropped plans to sue CLSA and analyst Kieran Calder, the Tokyo-based company said today. CLSA apologized for using the title "Confidence Man" and failing to mention that first-half results were audited, CLSA spokeswoman Simone Wheeler said in an e-mail. Still, CLSA stands by its report, she said. Calder wrote on Feb. 27 that CLSA examined Softbank's accounts and found a number of "red flags that are so obvious that they could not possibly be ignored" by regulators or auditor Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu. Softbank said on March 1 that the report was "based on mistaken facts and speculation."

Today, Hong Kong-based CLSA sent investors a memorandum entitled "Softbank Clarification," apologizing for the title as it "could have potentially been misunderstood by our readers," and for omitting a reference that Deloitte audited the earnings report for the half year ended Sept. 30, 2006, according to a copy of the memo obtained by Bloomberg News. Also, "financial scandals" at Nikko Cordial Corp. and Sanyo Electric Co. mentioned in the report had no relation to Softbank, according to the memo by CLSA, whose largest shareholder is Credit Agricole SA, France's second-biggest bank by assets.

Softbank, which owns Japan's third-largest mobile phone operator, said on March 6 that it would sue CLSA, Calder, and the London-based Financial Times, which published an article that cited the analyst's report. On May 8, Softbank's Son, ranked by Forbes Magazine as Japan's richest man, said the company received a "very clear apology" from the brokerage and that the report would be corrected. The Feb. 27 report said "there really is no Softbank without its founder Masayoshi Son." Softbank may still take legal action against the FT and seek a correction of the report or damages, Katsumasa Tochihara, a Tokyo-based spokesman for Softbank, said today. Emma Gilpin-Jacobs, director of communications at the newspaper in London, didn't immediately respond to phone calls and e-mail. Calder couldn't immediately be reached on his office phone.
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Postby Mulboyne » Fri Oct 31, 2008 2:53 am

Reuters: Softbank talks growth and finances to support stock
* Issues earnings forecast, aiming to reassure investors

* Sees Y340 bln annual op profit, up 4.8 percent y/y

* Q2 profit rises 6.6 pct on Internet, fixed-line ops

* Says could pay back Y2.5 trln debts within a decade

* Shares jump 15 pct before results, down 67 pct this yr (Adds more details, company comment)

Softbank Corp, Japan's third-biggest wireless carrier, gave an annual forecast for the first time in six years and a timeline to pay back debt, aiming to reassure investors following a slide in its stock price. Shares in Softbank have lost two-thirds of their value since the start of the year, wiping out about $17 billion in market value as investors fret about companies carrying a heavy debt burden amid a global tightening of credit. Chief Executive Masayoshi Son told a news conference that the company expects its operations to grow rapidly and generate enough free cash flow to repay its 2.5 trillion yen ($25 billion) in interest-bearing debt in less than a decade. Also, Softbank broke with its policy of not issuing forecasts and estimated it would be able to post a 5 percent jump in operating profit to 340 billion yen for the year to March 2009, and another 24 percent the following year.

"Our shares have plummeted amid the global financial turmoil and concerns over the economy," Son said. "There were probably many people who were worried about our large debt and our ability to repay it, and the lack of an earnings forecast was making it difficult to gauge our outlook." Softbank, which sells Apple Inc's iPhone in Japan and ranks third in the market behind NTT DoCoMo and KDDI Corp, brought its quarterly report forward by a week to address concerns over its earnings. The company said operating profit came to 94.9 billion yen in July-September, up 7 percent from the same period a year ago, helped by solid results at Internet portal Yahoo Japan Corp in which it has a 41 percent stake. Lower costs at its fixed-line phone business also boosted the profit in the latest quarter.

The company sees an operating profit of 340 billion yen in the year to March, missing an average forecast of 355 billion yen in a poll of 13 analysts by Reuters Estimates. For the next business year, Softbank expects a profit of 420 billion yen. Reduced capital spending and growth in its mobile business and expansion in Asia would help drive that growth, it said. It sees free cash flow of 140 billion yen in 2008/09 and 250 billion yen in 2009/10. "We are normally very cautious about revealing figures, so you can say that we view these figures as our commitment," he said. Before the announcement, Softbank shares closed up 15.4 percent, or by the daily limit of 100 yen, at 750 yen. The Nikkei average was up 7.7 percent.
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