SBC to buy 3% of Yahoo from Softbank

TOKYO: Japanese Internet investor Softbank Corp. said on Friday that its US
unit plans to sell a roughly three per cent stake in Yahoo! Inc. for $300
million to US phone company SBC Communications, Inc.

Softbank said it would book a special profit of 27 billion yen ($205 million)
for the October-March period as a result of the sale, which is expected to close
in the first quarter of 2002. The company said its US unit, Softbank America,
would remain Yahoo's single largest shareholder after the deal with a stake of
about 17 per cent.

The deal signifies a closer tie-up between SBC and Yahoo, which in November
agreed to offer a co-branded, premium DSL Internet and dial-up service that is
expected to be launched in mid-2002. Yahoo has been trying to find new ways to
make money by leveraging its large user base at a time when advertising spending
has hit one of the worst slumps in recent history.

On Thursday, Yahoo said HotJobs.com Inc. agreed to be acquired by the
Internet media company for $436 million, or $10.50 per share, after the online
recruiting company rejected a lower bid from TMP Worldwide, Inc. Softbank, which
fell into the red for the six months to September due to losses on shareholdings
in the slumping technology sector, is trying to reshuffle its investment
portfolios and overhaul its spread-out businesses.

Softbank's overseas investments incurred sizeable losses in the half-year,
forcing the company to cut 70 jobs and reduce the number of offices to three
from 11 outside Japan. Earlier this month, Softbank sold its stakes in US online
brokerage E*Trade Group, Inc. for 18.1 billion yen ($137.5 million). The company
also sold its shareholdings in US online technology news and e-commerce network
CNET Networks, Inc. for 6.2 billion yen.

With all these transactions, Softbank said it expected to cut group
interest-bearing debt by 100 billion yen for the six months to March 2002. As of
end-September, it had 339.3 billion yen of debt.

© Reuters Limited.