Son was born, in 1957 on Kyusho Island and grew up in a small town, Tosu City, Saga Prefecture. Son belongs to an ethnic Korean family. His grandparents migrated to Japan from Korea. In 1973, at the age of 16, Son attended high school in California and later moved to Holy Names College in Oakland, California. In 1980, Son graduated from the University of California at Berkeley with a B.A. degree in Economics. 'While an undergraduate student, Son invented a multilingual pocket translator and sold his patent to Sharp Corp., which later brought him a $1 million windfall (Lynskey and Yonekura, 2001.. Son also founded Unison Computer Company, which is now owned by Kyocera Corp. (Webber, 1992;
In 1981, Son returned to Japan and founded Soft- bank Corp. The company initially started with two part-time workers and later grew to 570 employees in 1991. Softbank supplied computer software, books and magazines, and other technology-related products to 200 dealer outlets. In 1991, the company expanded at a very fast pace and grew to 15,000 dealer outlets because of the changing market conditions and strong consumer demand for software and computer products. In 1991, Son netted $350 million in sales and its retailers' network expanded to 25,000. During this period, Softbank was distributing products from companies such as Microsoft, Novell, Sun Microsystems, and Oracle (Lynskey and Yonekura, 2001.. After 1991, Son started to expand into the Internet area and made numerous acquisitions. In 1994, Softbank's stock started trading on the Tokyo over- the-counter market. After four years, Softbank's shares were listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange. Since 1994 the stock has split four times. Son's recent initiatives, acquisitions, and major alliances include Nihon Cisco Systems, Ziff-Davis trade show, Comdex, Windows World, Yahoo, Yahoo Japan, and Soitbank Technology Ventures (refer to Exhibits C5-1 - C5-3.. In 1994, when the Internet market in North America started to take off, Softbank was the only Japanese company making high-profile acquisitions. This shows Son's visionary personality and aggressive entrepreneurial style (Business Week, 1996; Business Week E-Biz, 1999; U.S. Nezvs & World Report, 1999; Weinberg, 1999.. Abrahains & Nakamoto (1999, p. 16. commented:
Softbank is a Un que Japanese company. Led by Masayoshi Son, its flamboyant president, it has been touted as Japan's answer to Microsoft. Son's multimedia empire has expanded at breathtaking speed to become a global enterprise, but in the past year the group's shares have tumbled, raising concerns about Soft- bank's future.
Forbes (1999, p. 148. commented on Softbank's massive acquisitions:
Masayoshi Son's golden touch in Web investing has made him fabulously rich. His 42% stake in Softbank gives him a personal worth of $6.4 billion. The $6.4 billion question: Is he really that much smarter than everyone else - or is he just lucky?
Far Eastern Economic Review (1999, p. 11. commented on Son's bold moves and his entrepreneurial style:
Son's vision is to build Softbank into a global Internet consortium or zaibatsu1, with the same landscape-shifting impact as the zaibatsu of the Meiji era who created Japan's first modern industries. He is doing this by identifying businesses where substantial efficiencies can be gained by going on-line. In particular, Son has zoomed in on Japan's stuffy world of brokerage, insurance, and banking... . Should Son succeed, he will be known not just as the man who dominates the Internet, but as a major financial-services player.
Who Is Masayoshi Son? : A First Time Expatriate is Experience in a Joint article from Business Technical Catagory Who Is Masayoshi Son?
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