Thread: SoftBank's Son to meet Saudi King Salman on Tuesday in Tokyo, $100 BILLION deal

Mon Mar 13, 2017 | 9:16pm EDT

SoftBank's Son to meet Saudi King Salman on Tuesday in Tokyo: source

FILE PHOTO: SoftBank Group Corp Chairman and CEO Masayoshi Son attends a news conference in Tokyo, Japan, February 8, 2017. REUTERS/Toru Hanai/File Photo


SoftBank Group Corp Chairman Masayoshi Son will meet Saudi King Salman on Tuesday in Tokyo, a person briefed on the matter said, as the kingdom and the Japanese tech and investment firm proceed with plans to create a $100 billion technology-investment fund.

The source did not have further details on the meeting between the billionaire entrepreneur investor and the king, who is on a state visit to Japan this week.

The Saudi embassy did not immediately respond to a telephone request for comment.

Saudi Arabia and SoftBank agreed in October to pursue the SoftBank Vision Fund, which would be one of the world's largest private-equity investors and a potential kingpin in the industry.

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-sa...-idUSKBN16L05R

Softbank = China

Softbank is a Japanese company best known for owning Yahoo Japan and Sprint.

With their background in telecommunications and the internet, why would they want to buy a major semiconductor company? And why, with $89B in debt, is Softbank adding another $31B?

The answer: Softbank is not what they appear. What isn't as well known is that Softbank is actually a major player in China's internet economy.

For starters, they bankrolled Alibaba. They control 32% of Alibaba, and through Alibaba, they dominate the Chinese internet economy because Alibaba has invested in the top internet companies in China: Weibo, for example.

Although based in Japan, Softbank is very much a Chinese company.

The fact remains that, despite the $10B budget, China has yet to land any major companies.

Perhaps Softbank on its own is front-running a bigger China budget.

Or perhaps Softbank was tapped to be the buyer, but not the ultimate buyer. After all, who is lending them to $31B to close the deal? And Softbank will earn a lot of political credits for doing a favor for the

Chinese government effort to ramp-up a semiconductor company.

Don't be surprised if we see an announcement in a year or two that ARMH is up for sale and the buyer is a major Chinese company.

This was a brilliant move.

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-0...-company-world

10/1/13

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