Research and Markets: New Report Covers the Key Strategic Issues Facing Softbank Corp, Including Softbank's Performance in the Wake of Mobile Number Portability in Japan

Business Wire, June 14, 2007

DUBLIN, Ireland -- Research and Markets (http://www.researchandmarkets.com/reports/c59743) has announced the addition of the new IE Market Research Report "Softbank Corp.: Competitor Insight 2007" to their offering.

This market research report on Softbank Corp. ("Softbank") provides a comprehensive analysis of strategies, operational and financial metrics of Japan's #3 telecom operator. The report covers the key strategic issues facing Softbank, including Softbank's performance in the wake of Mobile Number Portability (MNP) in Japan. We also provide a comprehensive review of the types of strategies that Softbank needs to adopt to leverage its Yahoo! Japan asset and factors affecting Softbank's FMC prospects. We also cover Softbank's operational performance such as churn rates, subscriber growth, handset replacement rates, sales incentives, and capex.

Strategic Outlook

New rate plans by Softbank have stemmed subscriber churn

Softbank has avoided MNP worst-case scenario

Colourful handset strategy should be effective in keeping customers

New rate plans and handset differentiation strategy shows Softbank has little headroom in the Mobile space

Leveraging Yahoo! Japan to turn around mobile operations will be difficult

Major gaps relative to DoCoMo and KDDI

Japanese users indifferent on search engine technology

Yahoo! Japan's strategy based on expanding its media value

To early to leverage Yahoo! Japan in Softbank Mobile's advantage

Yahoo! Japan's strategy geared towards all carriers, not just Softbank Mobile

Search engine marketing geared toward branding

Mobile searches are inconvenient

Experience-based branding in the mobile internet space is years away

Operational Summary and Forecasts

Softbank unlikely to become Central FMC player

FMC services could be rendered redundant by DoCoMo's 4G

FTTR not likely to repeat ADSL success for Softbank

Softbank's broadband services market share declining

Softbank Mobile's churn rates: smaller than DoCoMo but higher than KDDI

Subscriber estimates: Flat share of subscriber growth for Softbank Mobile

Handset replacement rate for Softbank Mobile likely to stay the same

Handset sales incentives higher than DoCoMo and KDDI and will likely stay that way

Capex summary

Financial Summary and Forecasts

Operating profit slightly under our forecast

List of Tables

Table 1: Subscriber increase/decrease forecasts for DoCoMo, KDDI, and Softbank

Table 2: Tariff plans introduced by DoCoMo, KDDI and Softbank (October 2006 - January 2007)

Table 3: Main Mobile Search Engines in Japan

Table 4: Price-reduction calculation for FMC

Table A1: Softbank Key Financial Metrics and Forecasts

Table A2: Softbank consolidated earnings estimates and forecasts (Y= million), 2003 - 2009

Table A3: Softbank earnings projections by business segment (Y= million), 2003 - 2009

Table A4: Softbank consolidated balance sheet projections (Y= million), 2003 - 2009

Table A5: Softbank consolidated cash flow projections (Y= million), 2003 - 2009

Table A6: Softbank Mobile income statement projections (Y= billion), 2003 - 2009

Table A7: Softbank Mobile Subscription projections ('000s), 2003 - 2009

Table A8: Softbank Mobile ARPU projections (Y=), 2003 - 2009

List of Figures

Chart 1: Profit Size Comparison (Y= billion), DoCoMo, KDDI (Mobile), Vodafone/Softbank

Chart 2: Yahoo! Japan advertisement revenue and market share, 2000 - 2006

Chart 3: Yahoo! BB Broadband market share, 2003 - 2006

Chart 4: Yahoo! BB Monthly churn rate, 2003 - 2006

Chart 5: Softbank Mobile, DoCoMo, and KDDI churn rate forecasts, 2003 - 2009

Chart 6: Gross new subscriber trends - DoCoMo, KDDI, Softbank, 2003 - 2006

Chart 7: Churn rate replacement rate - DoCoMo, KDDI, Softbank, 2003 - 2009

Chart 8: Handset Sales incentives trends - DoCoMo, KDDI, Softbank, 2003 - 2009

For more information, visit http://www.researchandmarkets.com/reports/c59743.> Source: IE Market Research

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