Softbank reports sharp fall in profits

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Weak sales of mobile telephones and losses on investments pushed net profits down 37.6% at Softbank Corp in the nine months to December, the company said Thursday. The Internet and telecom company booked a net profit of 58.18 billion yen for the first three quarters of the fiscal year, down from 93.20 billion yen the previous year.

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Operating profit rose 5.6% to 274.69 billion yen but revenue slipped 3.7% to 1.98 trillion yen.

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Softbank, which entered the mobile market by buying British giant Vodafone’s struggling local unit in 2006, had hoped to get a major boost from launching Apple’s iPhone 3G in Japan last July.

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While subscriber numbers rose, revenue at its mobile telephone arm dropped 5.7% due to a decline in handset sales.

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Another reason for the slump in the bottom line was a loss of 10.1 billion yen from investments gone sour.

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For the year to March, the company kept its operating profit forecast unchanged at 340 billion yen, which would be 4.8% higher than the previous year.

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