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Japan’s Softbank is acquiring smaller rival EMOBILE in a deal that would make it the country’s second-largest mobile operator behind NTT Docomo. The carrier [Softbank] is paying 180.2 billion JPY (about $2.3 billion) to buy stock in eAccess, the firm behind EMOBILE.
According to Reuters, the 52,000 JPY per share deal represents a premium of more than three times eAccess’ stock price of 15,070 JPY. All that extra cash is justified with benefits coming from EMOBILE’s existing customer base, and Softbank Mobile’s founder Masayoshi Son thinks shareholders will love the deal.
Total synergies are estimated at 360 billion JPY, made up of customer base expansion (200 billion JPY), network sharing (110 billion JPY) and “other management efficiencies” (50 billion JPY).
Softbank had 34.9 million subscribers at end-August, while EMOBILE had 4.2 million, bringing Softbank’s new total to 39.1 million, which is more than KDDI’ 35.9 million subscribers.
[Via: MobileBusinessBriefing]
About The Author
Dusan Belic
Dusan has been using smartphones since their introduction and is now following the latest trends in the industry. The "convergence" is what he's most excited about, and writing about it is the next logical thing to do. He thinks that using a smartphone is what everyone who cares about their time should do. In addition to his interests in mobile phones, Dusan also loves to experiment with the latest web and mobile 2.0 services. The idea of accessing and managing your information from any device no matter where you are simply amazes him. Whether it's an online to-do list, note taking service or a video sharing social network, he's there to try it out. He admits though, he's still searching for the ultimate web-based organizational tool, which "sings" perfectly with the mobile PIM application. Dusan used to run SymbianWatch.com which later became part of IntoMobile. He lives in Serbia, South-East Europe, from where he edits the site on a daily basis.
