Yahoo! has taken back total control of several of its local subsidiaries. The company has signed a deal with Japanese investment group Softbank, one of its former shareholders, for the repurchase of its stake in Yahoo! Europe and Yahoo! Korea. Until now, Softbank held 30 per cent of Yahoo!'s French, German and UK sites and 33 per cent of its Korean site. Yahoo! will spend $500m to regain control of its European and Korean arms, with the transaction due to be concluded between now and the end of the fourth quarter of this year. Terry Semel, Yahoo!'s CEO, said in a statement: "By buying out Softbank... our strategic flexibility to take advantage of international growth opportunities in Korea and Europe will be enhanced, and this new structure should lead to a more efficient, longer-term operating and tax model." Softbank still holds an interest in Yahoo! Japan and is Yahoo!'s partner in the Chinese ecommerce site Alibaba, which the company invested in this summer.
Everybody wants a big ol' piece of the Asian market. I wonder how much Yahoo sold those 30% stakes for originally.
Asian markets will worth alot more then Nort American Markets in a few years because of economical growth of china and India.
Hell yea, better keep your investments in Asia. I'm going back to Korea next month to solidify my business there. Korea's growing rapidly, and Yahoo saw the error of their ways, selling it out. No, China is going down. As soon as they are forced to re-evaluate their yuan, you can expect a nice halt on their growth. Also, Human rights groups might actually get some of their sanction wishes, as anti-chinese outsourcing sentiment grows, and atrocities like their massive forced abortions in Tibet, or the hundreds of disfigured mongolian victims, get public attention, it's a double win for politicians to start putting restrictions or tariffs on Chinese goods.