In December 2004, SoftBank, an internet service provider, purchased the Fukuoka Daiei Hawks to help with finances in the Pacific League.
SoftBank is Fon's first collaboration with a mobile line operator wanting to offload data traffic to Wi-Fi.
In July 1999 Morningstar accepted an investment of US$91 million from SoftBank in return for a 20% stake in the company.
Founder Scott Blum sold his stake to SoftBank in 1999 for $195 million just before the company first filed to go public.
Additionally, it has various partnerships in Japanese subsidiaries of foreign companies such as Yahoo!, E-Trade, Ustream.tv, EF Education First and Morningstar.
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July 1, 2013 – SoftBank announced that Willcom became a wholly owned subsidiary effective July 1, 2013 after termination of rehabilitation proceedings.
SoftBank Mobile | SoftBank | Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks | Softbank Capital | Fukuoka Softbank Hawks |
Makers of these phones include major cell phone carriers such as docomo, au and SoftBank.
Despite pitching well in spring training and not giving up a single run, Germano did not win a spot on SoftBank's Opening Day roster, as the Hawks were at the limit of foreign players on the roster (Chris Aguila, Kameron Loe, D.J. Houlton, and Brian Falkenborg).