SoftBank to purchase new shares of Yahoo Japan, a Japanese internet company, for JP¥456.5bn ($4bn), with the intention of making Yahoo Japan a consolidated subsidiary. Since commencing service in 1996, Yahoo Japan has made efforts to expand its business area and to grow its business by grasping customer needs and the market environment, which has changed in accordance with evolutions in the communications environment, devices and technology. With that addition, SoftBank, which listed in December in Japan’s largest-ever initial public offering, forecast its operating profit would rise to $7.9bn in the current financial year through March 2020.