Earnings: Softbank Gets Mobile Boost; Profit Up 45 Percent

Will Softbank boldly succeed where Vodafone did not? The Japanese broadband and mobile operator, which bought Vodafone’s Japan business in April 2006, reported a huge leap in profits — by 45 percent — on the back of aggressive price wars with DoCoMo and KDDI in the mobile arena. But the strategy is also resulting in a big bite being taken out of the company’s ARPU.

–Profit for the quarter April-June was 78.75 billion yen ($663 million) in the three months ended June 30, up from 54.36 billion yen a year earlier, but ARPU is down by 210 yen to 5,000 yen for the period. (via WSJ)

–Broadband growth at the company’s successful Yahoo! BB unit is leveling off. Although Softbank’s motto is “Making what’s normal on PC normal on mobile phones is the goal,” the company’s gains in mobile so far are not due to a particularly innovative mobile data strategy, but to its volume in subscriber gains. It has picked up 45 percent of net subscriber gains in Japan in the quarter, compared to KDDI’s 38 percent and DoCoMo’s 16 percent. DoCoMo and KDDI still control more than 80 percent of Japan’s mobile market.
(Via Reuters)

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