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Tag: Softbank

  • Snapdeal raises $500 million investment from Alibaba, SoftBank & Foxconn

    Snapdeal raises $500 million investment from Alibaba, SoftBank & Foxconn

    MUMBAI: Snapdeal has secured an investment of $500 million led by Alibaba Group, Foxconn and SoftBank to power its digital commerce ecosystem.

     

    Existing investors Temasek, BlackRock, Myriad and Premji Invest also participated in this round.

     

    Snapdeal co-founder and CEO Kunal Bahl said, “We see this milestone as a significant endorsement of Snapdeal’s strategy and commitment to creating life changing experiences for millions of small businesses and consumers in India. With global leaders like Alibaba, Foxconn and SoftBank, in addition to our other existing partners, supporting us, our efforts towards building India’s most impactful digital commerce ecosystem will be propelled further, enabling us to contribute towards creating a Digital India.”

     

  • SoftBank invests $627 million in Snapdeal

    SoftBank invests $627 million in Snapdeal

    MUMBAI:  Seeking to tap into the growing e-commerce market in India, the Japanese telecom giant SoftBank announced a $627 million investment in the home-grown retailer Snapdeal, becoming the largest investor in the company.

     

    This is the largest investment made by a single investor in an e-commerce company in India.  Other existing investors have also participated in this round with a significant undisclosed investment.

     

    Through this strategic investment and partnership with Snapdeal, the telecom group aims at strengthening its presence in India and leveraging synergies with its network of Internet companies around the world, according to the press release issued by the e-tailer.

     

    While on the other hand, Snapdeal, will use the investments in expanding its chain of fulfillment centres. It will also look to make 3-4 strategic acquisitions in the coming few months specifically in the area of mobile technology and is planning to set up an incubation centre to hone and harness start-up businesses in the mobile technology space within next six months.

     

    Talking about the investment, SoftBank chairman and CEO Masayoshi Son said, “Since SoftBank’s foundation, our mission has been to contribute to people’s lives through the Information Revolution. We believe India is at a turning point in its development and have confidence that India will grow strongly over the next decade. As part of this belief, we intend to deploy significant capital in India over the next few years to support development of the market.”

     

    Adding to that, SoftBank’s vice chairman Nikesh Arora reckoned, “India has the third-largest Internet user base in the world, but a relatively small online market currently. This situation means India has, with better, faster and cheaper Internet access, a big growth potential. With today’s announcement SoftBank is contributing to the development of the infrastructure for the digital future of India. We want to support the leaders and entrepreneurs of the digital future; Kunal and Rohit are two such great leaders.”

     

    Nikesh Arora will also be joining the board of Snapdeal as part of this strategic investment by the SoftBank Group.

     

    Morrison & Foerster LLP acted as legal advisor to advising SoftBank on India law matters.

     

     “Our entire team at Snapdeal is thrilled and honoured to have SoftBank as a strategic partner. With the support of Son-san and Nikesh, we are confident we will further strengthen our promise to consumers and create life changing experiences for 1 million small businesses in India,” said Snapdeal co-founder and CEO Kunal Bahl.

     

    Founded in 2010, the company also claims to have more than 25 million registered users and more than 50,000 business sellers. Earlier this year, Snapdeal had raised $133.77 million in a round led by eBay and $105 million from institutional investors including Temasek, Myriad, Tybourne, Blackrock Inc. and Premji Invest. Tata Sons Chairman Emeritus Ratan Tata also made a personal investment into the company. 

  • Alibaba in talks with Snapdeal to enter India

    Alibaba in talks with Snapdeal to enter India

    MUMBAI: As it is ready to embark upon a new journey by launching what may be the biggest IPO ever, Chinese e-retailer Alibaba may also be making a move to tap into the growing Indian retail market through an investment in local e-retailer Snapdeal.

     

    According to an Economic Times report, Alibaba, is in talks with online retailer Snapdeal to enter India. The e-commerce giant is in discussion for a possible investment in the Indian company, but no decision has been taken yet.

     

    The report also quoted a source saying that the deal will be announced in a month.

     

    The Chinese company is expected to be valued at over $165 billion at the conclusion of its initial public offer. So far, Alibaba has only been linking Indian merchants with overseas buyers and sellers.

     

    With its entry in the Indian online retail space by aligning with Snapdeal, the Chinese e-tailer will be competing directly against market leaders like Flipkart and Amazon. Even though the Chinese company would be a late entrant, it has the advantage of size — as per sales Alibaba is bigger than Amazon and eBay combined.

     

    While on the other hand, the Delhi-based company has already raised a total of $233 million in two rounds of investments this year. The last round in May valued the firm at $1 billion. It is expected to be worth Rs 50,000 crore by 2016, according to a market rating agency Crisil.

     

    The company, in which Ratan Tata holds a stake, is also attracting attention from Japan’s largest e-commerce company Rakuten Inc and telecommunications firm SoftBank Corp, the report added.

     

    On contacting Snapdeal, the spokesperson said, “As a policy, we do not comment on such speculations.”

     

    Alibaba’s shares are set to debut on the US market on 19 September, in what could be the world’s largest ever initial public offering. It increased the price range on its offering from $66 to $68 on 15 September, reflecting strong demand from investors for the year’s most anticipated debut.

  • Google’s Nikesh Arora heads to SoftBank

    Google’s Nikesh Arora heads to SoftBank

    MUMBAI: SoftBank Corp. has announced that Google’s Nikesh Arora will be joining the company in October as vice chairman of SoftBank Corp. and CEO of SoftBank Internet and Media Inc (SIMI).

     

    He will be report to SoftBank Corp. chairman and CEO Masayoshi Son.

     

    Arora joins SoftBank after almost a decade at Google, first running their European business operation and for the last five years as its chief business officer.

     

    “As we enter the next phase of our expansion I can’t think of a better person than Nikesh to help us chart that course. As Vice Chairman, he will work closely with me in defining, implementing and managing our global growth strategy. In addition, as CEO of SIMI he will be directly responsible for overseeing our Internet, telecommunications, media and global investment activities, which we have been developing over the last few years,” said Masayoshi Son.

     

    “I have had the good fortune of getting to know Nikesh over the last five years. He brings a rare set of skills: amazing financial and strategic acumen; a decade of executive experience at one of the fastest growing companies in history; a deep understanding of the telecommunications industry. This makes him uniquely qualified to help guide us through our next stage of growth. Our intention is to nominate Nikesh to the SoftBank Corp. board at our next shareholder meeting,” he concluded.

     

    Before joining Google, Arora was a telecom analyst at Putnam Investments. He then went on to create his own mobile data start-up in 2000 and also worked with T-Mobile in various capacities including as CMO of its European Business and a member of its board.

     

    At Google, Arora was responsible for all partnerships, marketing, sales and customer activities in addition to being part of the company’s management team. Arora has an MBA from Northeastern University, a Master’s Degree in Finance from Boston College and graduated as an Electrical Engineer from IIT-BHU. He is also a CFA.

  • CBS, Avex expand on demand mobile video deal

    CBS, Avex expand on demand mobile video deal

    MUMBAI: CBS Studios International and Japan‘s Avex Entertainment have announced the expansion of their multi-year licensing agreement to include CBS programming on SoftBank Mobile‘s subscription video-on-demand service, Uula.

    The Uula service, a joint venture between Avex Entertainment and Softbank, will now include content for SoftBank‘s smartphone and tablet subscribers from CBS‘s extensive television library, including early seasons of current hits such as ‘NCIS‘, ‘NCIS: Los Angeles‘ and ‘90210‘ and full seasons of classic series such as ‘Star Trek‘, ‘Star Trek: Enterprise‘, ‘Medium‘ and ‘The 4400‘.

    The Uula service joins Avex‘s existing “dVideo” subscription on-demand service, available to customers of mobile carrier NTT Docomo.

    CBS Studios International executive VP Barry Chamberlain said, “We‘re excited to expand this content licensing agreement and provide UULA subscribers the flexibility to watch CBS programming on their mobile devices. The international digital space continues to provide more choice for viewers and additive revenue opportunities for content providers.”

  • News Corp launches MySpace in Japan

    News Corp launches MySpace in Japan

    MUMBAI: US media conglomerate News Corp has launched a Japanese-language version of its social networking site (SNS) MySpace. This marks MySpace’s first Asian entry.

    Media reports state that News Corp has formed a 50:50 JV with Softbank to operate the site. The venture will initially offer services for personal computers. Later, people will be able to use mobile phones to post photos, write Web logs and download music.

    Partial services are available on a trial basis at jp.myspace.com.

    Reports add that while it is hard to predict how things will unfold , other attempts by foreign SNS’ to break into the Japanese market have not fared well. Softbank is a broadband services provider in Japan and earlier this year paid $15.6 billion to acquire Vodaphone’s Japanese mobile phone service.

    Existing social networking sites in Japan – including Softbank subsidiary Yahoo Japan – have about 10 million users. Softbank has a 41 per cent stake in Yahoo Japan.

    Softbank CEO Masayoshi Son was quoted in reports saying that his company would guide the new venture so that it met the requirements of Japanese users, while News Corp, which invested in MySpace through its Fox Interactive Media subsidiary, would provide the ‘formula’ for operating the Web site.