softbank s headquarters native name type public traded as tyo 9984 otc pink sftbf industry telecommunications founded september 3 1981 ; 35 years ago 1981 09 03 founders masayoshi son headquarters tokyo shiodome building 105 7317 1 9 1 higashi shimbashi minato ku tokyo japan key people masayoshi son chairman & ceo & coo products fixed line and mobile telephony internet services digital television revenue 9.15 trillion fy2015 1 operating income 999.5 billion fy2015 1 net income 474.1 billion fy2015 1 total assets 20.7 trillion fy2015 1 total equity 2.6 trillion fy2015 1 number of employees 69 154 2016 2 subsidiaries softbank corp. 99.99 % sprint corporation 80 % 3 yahoo japan 35 % brightstar corp. gungho online entertainment 58.5 % 4 website www.softbank.co.jp softbank group corp. sofutobanku gur pu kabushiki gaisha 5 is a japanese multinational telecommunications and internet corporation established on september 3 1981 and headquartered in tokyo . it has operations in broadband fixed line telecommunications e commerce internet technology services finance media and marketing semiconductor design and other businesses . 6 the company is headed by founder masayoshi son . softbank was ranked in the forbes global 2000 list as the 62nd largest public company in the world 7 and the third largest public company in japan after toyota and mitsubishi ufj financial . 8 between 2009 and 2014 softbank s market capitalization increased by 557 % the fourth largest relative increase in the world over that period . 9 contents 1 business units 2 history 3 softbank corp. 3.1 j phone 3.2 vodafone 3.3 softbank mobile 3.4 technology 3.5 timeline 3.6 gallery 4 marketing 5 baby bonus 6 notes 7 references 8 external links business units edit softbank s corporate profile includes various other companies such as japanese broadband company softbank bb data center company idc frontier gaming company gungho online entertainment and the publishing company sb creative . sbi group is a japanese financial services company that began in 1999 as a branch of softbank . 10 ymobile corporation is another telecommunications subsidiary of softbank established in 2014 . in 2010 softbank founded wireless city planning wcp a subsidiary that will see the development of td lte networks throughout japan . 11 softbank also operate softbank capital a u.s. based venture capital company . the comdex expo in the u.s. was owned by softbank from 1995 to 2001 . since 2005 softbank also owns the fukuoka softbank hawks professional baseball team . softbank also operates in the eco power industry through its sb energy subsidiary . additionally it has various partnerships in japanese subsidiaries of foreign companies such as yahoo which has resulted in yahoo japan e trade ustream.tv ef education first and morningstar . it also has stakes in alibaba group and sprint corporation . history edit softbank bought comdex from the interface group in 1995 and in 1999 allowed organizers of comdex to restrict admission of media creating a spiraling effect . they eventually sold comdex to key3media a spin off of ziff davis in 2001 . on january 28 2005 softbank became the owner of the fukuoka softbank hawks a nippon professional baseball team . on march 17 2006 softbank announced its agreement to buy vodafone japan giving it a stake in japan s 78 billion mobile market . in april 2006 they bought a 23 % stake of betfair an internet betting exchange . in august 2006 softbank sold all its shares of sbi group to a subsidiary of sbi s holding company making sbi independent . on october 1 2006 vodafone japan changed its corporate name mobile phone brand name and its mobile phone domain name to softbank mobile softbank and mb.softbank.jp respectively . 12 on january 28 2008 it was announced that softbank and tiffany & co. collaborated in making a limited 10 model only cellphone . this cellphone contains more than 400 platinum diamond totaling more than 20 carat . the cost is said to be more than 100 000 000 yen . 13 on february 3 2010 softbank acquired 13.7 % in ustream with the option to increase shares to 30 % by july 2011 . 14 on october 1 2010 ayumi hamasaki became the commercial spokesperson . 15 on october 3 2012 the take over of competitor eaccess was announced and was completed in january 2013 . 16 on july 1 2013 softbank announced that willcom became a wholly owned subsidiary effective july 1 2013 after termination of rehabilitation proceedings . eaccess was merged with willcom which resulted in a new subsidiary and brand from yahoo japan ymobile corporation . on october 15 2012 softbank announced plans to take control of american sprint nextel by purchasing a 70 % stake for 20 billion . 17 on july 6 2013 the united states federal communications commission approved softbank s acquisition of the sprint corporation for 22.2 billion for a 78 % ownership interest in sprint . the acquisition involved payment of 17.2 billion in cash to sprint shareholders with the balance 5 billion as capital contribution . the transaction was financed by the way of cash and a bridge loan from a consortium of banks . 18 on august 6 2013 bought 2 % more shares of sprint corporation increasing its ownership stake in the company to 80 % . softbank store in ibaraki osaka japan merchandise drinking mug featuring otosan the softbank mascot softbank store in sendai with decorations for the tanabata in october 2013 softbank acquired an 51 % of stake in supercell for reported 2.1 billion . later on october 25 2014 they invested 210 million in olacabs 19 627 million in snapdeal with 30 % stake in the company on october 28 2014 and a 100 million investment in housing.com with 30 % stake in the company in november 2014 . 20 in 2014 softbank co designed the pepper a humanoid robot with aldebaran robotics . in 2015 softbank acquired dramafever . 21 in may 2015 masayoshi son said he would appoint nikesh arora a former google executive as representative director and president of softbank . arora has been heading softbank s investment arm . 22 on june 1 2015 softbank acquired an additional 22.7 % stake in supercell owning total 73.2 % of the company and becoming the sole external shareholder of the company . in july 2015 softbank announced the renaming of the company from softbank corp. to softbank group corp. meanwhile softbank mobile was renamed to softbank corp. the now former name of the company as a whole . 23 in june 2015 softbank announced it would invest us 1 billion in the korean e commerce website coupang as part of its overseas expansion plans . 24 on february 16 2016 softbank announced they would rebuy a record 14.2 % of shares valued at 4.4 bn in order to boost investor confidence . 25 on march 31 2016 they announced they would sell shares worth 7.9 billion of their stake in alibaba group . on june 21 2016 softbank sold its 84 % stake in supercell for reported us 7.3 billion to tencent . 26 in june 2016 nikesh arora stepped down as president of softbank amidst pressure from investors . board member ron fisher and baer capital partners founder alok sama stepped in to manage arora s overseas investment duties . 27 just a month later son announced the company s largest deal ever to buy british chip designer arm holdings for more than us 32 billion . 28 29 this acquisition was completed on september 5 2016 . 30 softbank corp. edit softbank corp. sofutobanku kabushikigaisha is softbank s telecommunications subsidiary providing both mobile and fixed line services . it was previously called softbank mobile until july 2015 with the group s merger of softbank bb corp. softbank telecom corp. and ymobile corporation to reflect its new status of providing fixed line and isp operations . 31 j phone edit j phone store in nagoya in 2003 the company was originally founded in 1981 as the mobile phone division of japan telecom under the name digital phone . j phone co. ltd. j was formed in 1999 by the merging of digital phone group dpg 3 local companies and digital tu ka group dtg 6 local companies not to be confused with tu ka . japan telecom owned a stake of 45.1 % . j phone grew steadily for a decade by continuously introducing new services and enhancements such as skywalker for pdc skymelody ringtone download the famous sha mail picture mail introduced on the basis of camera phones developed by sharp the mobile multimedia data service j sky modeled after ntt docomo s i mode and advanced java services based on jscl modeled after ntt docomo s doja based i appli . vodafone edit in october 2001 the british mobile phone group vodafone increased its share to 66.7 % of japan telecom and 69.7 % of j phone . on october 1 2003 the name of the company and the service brand was officially changed to vodafone with the division called vodafone k.k. or vodafone japan . the growth and success of the company during this period is due in large part to then president bill morrow . 32 however vodafone lost customers in january 2005 vodafone japan lost 58 700 customers and in february lost 53 200 customers while competitors ntt docomo gained 184 400 customers au by kddi gained 163 700 and willcom gained 35 000 . while as of february 2005 docomo s foma 3g service had attracted 10 million subscribers and kddi s 3g service had attracted over 17 million subscribers vodafone s 3g service only attracted 527 300 subscribers . vodafone 3g failed to attract subscribers because vodafone cut back investments in 3g services in japan in 2002 3 ; handsets did not fully match needs and preferences of japanese customers . at the end february 2005 vodafone japan had 15.1 million customers and by end of october 2005 the number of subscribers had fallen by 103 100 to 14.996 million while during the same period ntt docomo had gained 1.65 million customers and kddi au had gained 1.82 million customers . at the end of october 2005 ntt docomo had 17.6 million 3g customers kddi au had 19.8 million 3g customers and vodafone japan had 1.9 million 3g customers i.e. vodafone japan gained about 4.8 % of japan s 3g market . vodafone changed the name of its multimedia data services from j sky to vodafone live and used j sky s principles and technologies and business models to introduce the wap based vodafone live in vodafone s other markets . thus vodafone live has its origin in j phone s j sky . at the end of february 2005 vodafone live had 12.907 million subscribers in japan . by end of october 2005 the number of vodafone live subscribers had fallen by 138 000 to 12 769 600 . in march 2006 vodafone began discussing the sale of the vodafone japan unit to softbank . vodafone was unable to satisfy customers as japanese users tend to have preferences not seen in other markets . handsets had user interfaces that differed too much from the japanese interface and did not have as many features as competing companies . this led to the loss of more customers and vodafone s decision that the market was no longer profitable . softbank mobile edit television broadcast on a 2007 sharp phone on softbank softbank wi fi display with the company s mascot indicating a place where wi fi can be used on march 17 2006 vodafone group announced it had agreed to sell its holding of vodafone japan vodafone k.k. to softbank for about 1.75 trillion japanese yen approximately us 15.1 billion . on april 14 2006 softbank and vodafone k. k. jointly announced that the name of the company will be changed to a new easy to understand and familiar company name