SoftBank’s Son makes biggest bet in long career
MASAYOSHI Son’s forged a career out of betting early on some of the pivotal technology trends of his time.
Now he’s made the biggest gamble of his life on a nascent concept known as the Internet of Things.
SoftBank Group Corp.’s US$ 32 billion ( RM125 billion) bid for ARM Holdings – the linchpin of the mobile revolution – is predicated on the notion that succeeding generations will come to depend on smart appliances, gadgets and office gear that talk to each other and function free of much human intervention.
For that to work, each of them must come with a microchip, and Son’s betting it’ll be an ARM design.
It’s a bold vision, but then Son’s been there before. SoftBank’s progenitor has been at the forefront of technology for 35 years: He founded his company to capitalise on the early PC boom, backed web startups and e- commerce in China when they were still novel concepts, and challenged older wireless operators in Japan with innovative pricing plans.
The sheer size of the ARM investment suggests Son again thinks he’s onto something.
By jumping to the top of the hardware supply chain, SoftBank is eschewing an increasingly bewildering array of devices – everything from a smart rice cooker to mini-robots – and angling instead for a slice of vital components in all that hardware.
The concept could take off once ultra-fast fifth- generation broadband goes mainstream.
“If you are going to get into something like that to position yourself, it’s now,” said Shiv Putcha, associate director of consumer mobility and telecoms at IDC Asia Pacific in Mumbai.
“The whole range of connected devices is already booming but it’s just the beginning.” “5G is a good four or five years out and SoftBank themselves come from a telco background, so they know what’s coming.”
Son founded the company as a distributor of software in Sept 1981, a mere month after the first IBM personal computer appeared. It remained at the forefront of technology investments in the late 1990s, driving its share price to a record 22,000 yen in 2000 – a level it hasn’t come close to matching since.
It was in 2000 that Son invested US$ 20 million in a then- scrappy e- commerce startup and a founder struggling to explain the internet to Chinese bureaucrats.
Today, led by Jack Ma, Alibaba Group Holding dominates every aspect of the country’s online shopping.
Then in 2006, Son agreed to pay 1.8 trillion yen ( US$ 17 billion) for Vodafone Group’s Japanese operations even as the economy stalled and larger rivals held sway.
The next year, Apple unveiled the iPhone and a year later, SoftBank gained the exclusive rights to the pioneering device in Japan. “ARM will be an excellent strategic fit within the SoftBank group as we invest to capture the very significant opportunities provided by the ‘Internet of Things,”’ Son said in a statement. — WP-Bloomberg
“This is one of the most important acquisitions we have ever made.”
Son unveiled the ARM deal less than a month after his heir apparent, Nikesh Arora, quit the company when the billionaire founder decided he wasn’t ready to retire.
The former Google executive was brought on board to spearhead a search for the next Alibaba. — WP-Bloomberg