Softbank

Apple investing $1 billion in SoftBank Vision Fund

Apple is investing in SoftBank Group's new technology fund, reports The Wall Street Journal. The company confirmed its plans with the outlet to invest $1 billion in the SoftBank Vision Fund to help finance new technologies that it could use in the future.

“We believe their new fund will speed the development of technologies which may be strategically important to Apple,” Apple spokeswoman Kristin Huguet told The Journal. She also noted that Apple has been working with SoftBank for several years.

Japan’s SoftBank is buying iPhone CPU supplier ARM for a reported $32 billion

Japan's carrier SoftBank has announced it will be purchasing British fabless semiconductor maker ARM Holdings plc for a reported $32 billion, which is around a 43 percent premium on its closing market value of $22.25 billion on Friday. ARM confirmed the deal (PDF download) on Monday.

According to the statement, ARM's board is expected to recommend shareholders accept the offer. Apple is an investor in ARM and licenses its technology as a basis for custom CPU designs for its own A-series chips which power iOS devices.

SoftBank CEO tells how he landed the iPhone in 2008

During a television interview with Charlie Rose that aired this week, SoftBank's CEO Masayoshi Son told an interesting story of how he landed the iPhone in 2008. Apparently Son met with Steve Jobs two years before Apple launched the infamous handset to discuss...smartphones.

Son told Rose that he arranged a meeting with Jobs solely to show him a crude sketch of an iPod with mobile capabilities. Obviously, since the iPhone project was already well underway, Jobs didn't need the drawing, but the meeting still spawned a relationship between the two...

SoftBank completes Sprint buyout, drops the ‘Nextel’ name

It's official. Sprint Nextel is now simply Sprint Corporation, as SoftBank completes its high-profile buyout of the wireless provider. Japan’s third-largest carrier now owns a controlling stake in the United States' third-largest carrier. Fitting, isn't it?

The deal, which has been in negotiations since last fall, is worth some $21.6 billion. $5 billion of it is being used as a cash infusion to take on future projects, and the other $16.6 billion is going to Sprint shareholders. And Nextel? It's gone for good...

Dish puts $25B on table towards snagging Sprint from Japan’s Softbank

Dish Network has launched a $25.5 billion cash and stock bid to snag carrier Sprint from Japan's communications giant Softbank, according to reports Monday morning. Should Sprint accept the offer and regulators approve the deal, consumers will get a new service that could combine mobile, broadband and television.

Dish is the nation's second-largest direct-broadcast satellite service provider which serves just over fourteen million Americans. Sprint Nextel with its 47.5 million subscribers files as the third-largest wireless carrier in the United States. The proposed merger comes at an interesting time, just as Softbank's proposed acquisition of 70 percent of Sprint for $20.1 billion is nearing its completion in the second quarter of 2013...

AT&T voices concern over Sprint’s Clearwire deal

About this time last year, AT&T's plans to buyout T-Mobile were crumbling. Thanks to strong opposition from its competitors — namely Sprint, and the US government, the carrier was forced to withdraw its merger application from the FCC.

With that in mind, it's no surprise that AT&T is being vocal about the recently announced Softbank-Sprint-Clearwire deal. The carrier says it's worrisome that a foreign carrier will have control over such a large chunk of US airwaves...

Japanese carrier Softbank buys 70% stake in Sprint for $20 billion

There were reports last week that Softbank was interested in making a major investment in Sprint. Well those rumors materialized today, as the Japanese carrier is said to have purchased a 70% stake in the company.

The deal isn't exactly official yet, but the two parties are expected to make an announcement tomorrow morning. The purchase will give Softbank the controlling interest in the third largest carrier in the US...

Japan’s Softbank wants to buy Sprint

This just in. According to a new report out this morning, Softbank, Japan’s third-largest wireless operator, is in talks to buy a controlling stake in Overland, Kansas-based Sprint, the nation's third-largest carrier. The transaction is said to be worth an estimated 1.5 trillion yen, or $19 billion, and would file as the largest purchase of a foreign company by a Japanese firm.

SoftBank used to be the only official iPhone carrier in Japan until the release of iPhone 4S last November. According to people familiar with the situation, Softbank is aiming to buy all of the outstanding shares in Sprint, which had more than 56 million users at the end of June...