Softbank reports sharp fall in profits
Technology ( 10 )
TOKYO —
Weak sales of mobile telephones and losses on investments pushed net profits down 37.6% at Softbank Corp in the nine months to December, the company said Thursday. The Internet and telecom company booked a net profit of 58.18 billion yen for the first three quarters of the fiscal year, down from 93.20 billion yen the previous year.
Operating profit rose 5.6% to 274.69 billion yen but revenue slipped 3.7% to 1.98 trillion yen.
Softbank, which entered the mobile market by buying British giant Vodafone’s struggling local unit in 2006, had hoped to get a major boost from launching Apple’s iPhone 3G in Japan last July.
While subscriber numbers rose, revenue at its mobile telephone arm dropped 5.7% due to a decline in handset sales.
Another reason for the slump in the bottom line was a loss of 10.1 billion yen from investments gone sour.
For the year to March, the company kept its operating profit forecast unchanged at 340 billion yen, which would be 4.8% higher than the previous year.
Wire reports
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10 Comments
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0
noborito
When your service sucks, things like this happen.
Start off with a sales pitch at 790 a month then charge 10,000 yen. Nice scam for inferior service.
Why IPhone is with softbank is beyond me. Was it that the Japanese companies KDDI and DOCOMO lack anyone with any importance that could communicate in a language other than Japanese. Softbank at least had all those Vodafone English speaking execs hanging around.
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Altria
How many White Plans do they have to sell to break even on the fees they paid to Brad Pitt, Cameron Diaz, Ueto Aya, Dante, the Oto-san dog and Dentsu?
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Osakadaz
well that is odd as my phone bill has been rising exponentially despite me not using it for much other than mail,which is supposedly covered in their white plan ...I wish I had signed with a different company,because their service really does suck.
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memyselfI
I hate SOFTBANK with a passion. I hope this company goes down the tubes. I like the Otosan Dog. He's cool.
Softbank I am glad i switched phone companies.
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presto345
From J-Phone to Vodafone and now Softbank I am still 'with them'. They want me to switch to a 3G model soon as they are terminating the support for 2G. What is it about Softbank that 'really sucks'? Please tell us.
0
nanotechnology
I like Softbank for its predatory pricing. Because of that, AU, emobile, Willcom and Docomo are lowering prices too. The competition that Softbank is offering to the market also lowers the prices of these 4 cellular phone companies and 1 PHS company. I was IDO back in 1998 and now AU.
Softbank boasted its no.1 in net subscribers for the whole 2008 but I think the network quality deteriorates because of unlimited calls at 980yen. The 3G subscribers of softbank is increasing but still more than half of its base stations are still for 2G PDC technology. When everybody goes to 3G, there maybe more drop calls and clogging of network and the 2G base stations are almost a garbage because of 2G PDC is 180-degrees incompatible with 3G-WCDMA.
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onewrldoneppl
the dog rocks. the woman who plays the mother's pretty good lookin'. i see no problems @ softerbank. jus'need an injection of yahoo moneys.
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helloklitty
I still find cell phones completely unnecessary.
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presto345
That is a good one :-)
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Youdontknow
Yeah, it must be a tragic loss only making 58 billion yen last year huh!!
Well, that's what happens when you try to charge $800 for the iPhone which actually only costs $300, and THEN try to charge another $1400 over two years for the same phone and 'services'!
Softpants sucks and I hope they go out of business very quickly!!
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