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SOFTBANK CORP.

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Press Releases 2006

SOFTBANK announces the sale of shares held in Yahoo! Japan

Mar. 22, 2006

SOFTBANK CORP. (hereinafter “the Company”) announced that its wholly-owned subsidiary BB Technology Corp. (Head office: Minato-ku, Tokyo; Representative: Masayoshi Son) has today sold a portion of its shareholdings in Yahoo Japan Corporation (Head office: Minato-ku, Tokyo; Representative: Masahiro Inoue; hereinafter “Yahoo! Japan”).

1. Outline of the sale

(1) Shares sold 173,000 common shares held in Yahoo! Japan
(2) Proceeds of the sale approx. 23.3 billion yen
(3) Percentage of shares sold 0.57% (percentage of SOFTBANK Group’s shareholdings against the number of total outstanding shares of Yahoo! Japan)

2. Purpose of the sale

  • (1) To help Yahoo! Japan keep its stock listing on Tokyo Stock Exchange (TSE) 1st section

    The Company and Yahoo! Japan have been guided by TSE to take appropriate measures to enable the “special few*”’s shareholdings in Yahoo! Japan to meet TSE’s criterion for delisting that limits the percentage of shares held by the “special few” in a certain stock to 75% or less. The Company and Yahoo! Japan judge that this transaction would provide a solution to meet this criterion and thus enable Yahoo! Japan to remain listed on TSE.

    The sale reduced the percentage of shareholdings of the Group and Yahoo! Inc. (Head office: California, the United States; Representative: Terry Semel) in Yahoo! Japan, to 22,581,712 shares or 74.7% of its total outstanding shares. The Company does not have any plan to sell its shareholdings that further reduce its shareholding ratio in Yahoo! Japan.

  • (2) To finance part of the planned acquisition of Vodafone K.K. (Head office: Minato-ku, Tokyo; Representative: William T. Morrow)

3. Change in the Group’s shareholdings in Yahoo! Japan following the sale

  Shareholding ratio Number of shares held Number of total outstanding shares
Before the sale 41.9% 12,647,008 shares 30,216,873 shares
After the sale 41.3% 12,474,008 shares 30,216,873 shares
[Notes]
  • *The number of total outstanding shares of Yahoo! Japan corresponds to the figure as of the end of December 2005, which was listed in Yahoo! Japan’s “Results for the Three Months ended December 31, 2005”, announced on January 23, 2006.
  • *The number of shares held by the Group in Yahoo! Japan includes the shares indirectly held by the Group companies.
  • *Yahoo! Japan will remain a consolidated subsidiary of the Company after the sale.

4. Impacts on consolidated financial results

The Company expects the sale of shares will record approx. 22.5 billion yen in gain on sale of investment securities as special income, in the fourth quarter for the fiscal year ending March 31 2006.

[Note]
  • *“Special few” includes the 10 largest shareholders, persons having special interests in the issuer, and the issuer itself if it holds its own shares
  • *The information is true and accurate at the time of publication.
    Price, specification, contact and other information of products and service may be subjected to change. The information contains certain forward-looking statements that are subject to known and unknown risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such statements.