Masayoshi Son

Masayoshi Son Softbank Mobile Summit 2008

Masayoshi Son (Japanese: 孫正義, Korean: 손정의; born August 11, 1957 in Tosu, Saga Prefecture, Japan), born a Zainichi Korean^[1] and now a naturalized Japanese citizen, is a businessman and the founder and current chief executive officer of SoftBank Capital, and the chief executive officer of SoftBank Mobile (the renamed, effective October 1, 2006, Vodafone K. K. ). According to Forbes magazine, his net worth is $8.1 billion as of 2011 and he is the richest man in Japan,^[2] despite being the person who has lost the most money in history (approximately $70 billion in the dot com crash of 2000).^{[citation needed]} Forbes also describes him as a philanthropist.

Background

A third-generation son of a Korean family in Japan, Son's family adopted the Japanese surname Yasumoto (安本^?) in daily life to avoid discrimination, and Son used this surname when he was a child. Son pursued his interests in business by securing a meeting with Japan McDonald's president Den Fujita. Taking his advice, Son began studying English and computer science.

At age 16, Son moved to California and finished high school while staying with friends and family in South San Francisco. He attended the University of California, Berkeley in which he majored in economics and studied computer science. Enamored by a microchip featured in a magazine, Son at age 19 became confident that computer technology would ignite the next commercial revolution.

Convinced that anything related to microchips could yield a fortune, Son decided to produce at least one entrepreneurial idea a day. He patented a translating device that he eventually sold to Sharp Electronics for $1 million. Applications of the patent include the Wizard series of Sharp PDAs.

Flush with cash, Son imported Space Invaders video arcade systems and dispersed them about the UC Berkeley campus. Soon after graduating from Berkeley with a BA in economics in 1980, Son started Unison in Oakland, California, which has since been bought by Kyocera. In 1990, Son Masayoshi had adopted Japanese citizenship.

Yahoo! BB

Although SoftBank's stake in Yahoo! had dwindled to 7%, Son established Yahoo! BroadBand in September 2001 with Yahoo! Japan in which he still owned a controlling interest. After a severe devaluation of SoftBank's equity, Son was forced to focus his attention on Yahoo! BB and BB Phone. Using ADSL technology that could reach speeds upwards of 10 Mbit/s (new service can reach about 100 Mbit/s), Yahoo! BB currently^{[citation needed]} reaches 4.3 million subscribers each paying about $20–$30 a month, but continues to lose about $100 million a month. So far, SoftBank has accumulated about $1.3 billion in debt. Yet, Yahoo! BB acquired Japan Telecom, the then third largest broadband and landline provider with 600,000 residential and 170,000 commercial subscribers. Yahoo! BB is now Japan's leading broadband provider.

Vodafone K. K.

On March 17, 2006 Vodafone Group announced it had agreed to sell Vodafone K.K. to SoftBank for approximately 1.75 trillion Japanese yen (approximately US$ 15.1 Billion). On April 14, 2006 SoftBank and Vodafone K. K. jointly announced, that the brand and company name Vodafone will be changed to a "new, easy-to-understand and familiar company name and brand". Masayoshi Son is the CEO (Representative Director) of Vodafone K. K.

Investment in Solar Power

In response to the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster in 2011, Masayoshi Son criticized the nuclear industry for creating “the problem that worries Japanese the most today”,^[3] and engaged in investing in a nation-wide solar power network for Japan.^[4]

Genealogy

• Son family (Yasumoto family)　

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Masaaki  Masayoshi  Masanori  Taizo

References

1. ^ http://books.google.com/books?id=Pjpb7UgTheoC&pg=PA131&lpg=PA131&dq=Masayoshi+Son+zainichi+korean&source=bl&ots=8huLAy8J3q&sig=dLWWJfE7g1ktVyn1q4aAh0A5sBs&hl=en&ei=zIwQTZTeEcP68AbIycnWDQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=8&ved=0CDkQ6AEwBw#v=onepage&q=Masayoshi%20Son%20zainichi%20korean&f=false
2. ^ Masayoshi Son - Forbes, Forbes, http://www.forbes.com/profile/masayoshi-son, retrieved April 27, 2011 .
3. ^ Michael Penn (2011-04-23). "Masayoshi Son Castigates the Nuclear Industry". Shingetsu Blog. http://shingetsublog.jugem.jp/?eid=79. Retrieved 31 August 2011. 
4. ^ Yasu, Mariko (2011-06-23). "Softbank's CEO Wants a Solar-Powered Japan". BusinessWeek. http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/11_27/b4235016555525.htm. Retrieved 2011-08-23. 

External links

• 孫正義 (masason) on Twitter
• Masayoshi Son, AXA Talents, August 1, 2006, http://www.axa-im-talents.com/index.cfm?pagepath=Entrepreneurs .
• Bio and Photo, Time Magazine, http://www.time.com/time/digital/digital50/21.html 

Articles

• Son prefers small shares of companies to huge shares, Business Week, http://www.businessweek.com/2000/00_20/b3681039.htm 

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Name	Son, Masayoshi
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Date of birth	August 11, 1957
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