Internet
ò Industry sources said that a joint venture between News Corp. and the Softbank Corp. will see the launching of MySpace.com Internet business in Japan this month. The report said the 50-50 venture is producing a new entity called MySpace Japan, and will first offer services for personal computers and will eventually allow users to post photos and write blogs via mobile phones. Softbank did not issue any comment and no other details about the deal were released. Online services such as those offered by MySpace.com have become very popular in Japan, with Mixi Inc. remaining as the countryÆs most popular online social networking site.
ò MonotaRO Co., an online seller of industrial-use products, announced that it has received approval to list on the Tokyo Stock Exchange's Mothers market. The company will offer 5,270 shares to the public in its initial public offering. Of those, 500 are newly issued shares and 4,770 are shares currently held in private. The company will conduct a book-building for the IPO shares. Daiwa Securities SMBC Co., the lead underwriter of the offer, has a green shoe option to offer an additional 780 shares in the event of exceptional demand. For the current fiscal year through December, the company forecasts a parent pretax profit of Ñ535 million ($4.5 million), net profit of Ñ535 million ($4.5 million), and sales of 9.5 billion yen (US$80.7 million). MonotaRO said it looks to generating Ñ183.3 million ($1.5 million) from the IPO. Last fiscal year, the company posted a parent pretax profit of Ñ200 million($1.7 million), net profit of Ñ219 million ($1.8 million), and sales of Ñ6.7 billion ($57.0 million).
Mobile/Wireless
ò Napster Japan announced the launching of a mobile-based master ringtone and full-song download service. The offering is done in cooperation with NTT DoCoMo. The service, called Napster Tower Reco Koshiki (Napster Tower Records Official), will be available via NTT DoCoMo`s popular i-mode mobile-based Internet access service and will feature 20,000 master ringtones and 10,000 tracks as full-song downloads for $2.6.
Media, Entertainment and Gaming
ò Sony said it expects its PlayStation 3 to be a success as the company launches the device in Japan even with limited supply, the company said it has managed only to ready some 10,000 machines. The company said that when the PS3 goes on sale in the US, about 400,000 consoles will be made available. For Europe, Sony said the launch has been pushed back until March. Powered by the new "Cell" computer chip and supported by the next-generation video format, Blu-ray disc, the console delivers nearly movie-like graphics and a sense of reality in gaming. The more expensive model with a 60-gigabyte hard drive, costs about 60,000 yen (US$600) in the U.S. Still, Sony said it expects to lose Ñ200 billion ($1.7 billion) in its gaming division in the fiscal year through March 2007. Last month, Sony lowered its forecast for its fiscal 2006 group net profit by 38 percent to Ñ80 billion ($680 million), citing costs for the battery recall and PS3 expenses, including production problems and price cuts.
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