Computer publishing giant Ziff-Davis has a new owner: Masayoshi Son, 38, who through his Japanese software and publishing company, Softbank, bought Ziff from Ted Forstmann for a cool US$2 billion. Since Softbank's IPO in 1994, Son has been on a spending spree - he also gobbled up the Comdex conference and Ziff-Davis's exhibition companies.
Given Japan's banking crisis and growth-stifling political policies that include the world's most reactionary telecom regs, Son's strategy of raising money in overpriced yen to snap up dollar-denominated assets in expanding markets makes a lot of sense.
Next up: Son is eyeing Internet access in China and has $55 million earmarked for US networking.
ELECTRIC WORD
An Anti-Gravity Room of One's Own
Rising Son
