Skip to main content

UNITE AND CONQUER: THE SOFTBANK STRATEGY


Three Recent Happenings which involve Softbank:


1)Flipkart and Snapdeal hold merger talks both have Softbank as their investor, although talks failed.


2)Uber sells its China business to Didi both have Softbank as an investor


3)Uber sells its Singapore business to Grab both have Softbank as an investor.


The strategy of Softbank looks pretty clear from these, it buys stake in competitor firms in the same sector and then merges them forming a single entity which gets substantial control over the sector's market. It is not investing in startups based on performance but with the ultimate aim of getting control of the market through one entity. The Snapdeal investment is the best example to explain this, Softbank first bought a stake in Snapdeal then it went on to buy stake in Flipkart and then the merger talks give a hint about what was going to happen next, the talks did not workout and also Amazon was not leaving India at any cost.


Also there were talks of selling Freecharge (Bought by Snapdeal) to Paytm both having Softbank as an investor which did not work out well too, Freecharge then going to Axis Bank.


The recent Uber-Ola merger talks are also hinting at the same strategy. We have to wait to know the exact outcome of the talks but one thing is clear from these happening that Softbank has been adopting a strategy of Unite and Conquer by investing in rival firms in the same market and then looking out for possible merger and coalition opportunities.

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

India and it's unintentional skip and move policy

I would start this with simple story -- Once there was a boy in Class 10 he failed 4 times .He had lost out on 3 extra years compared to his peers . So he decided to study very hard , this time he cleared not only Class 10 but skipped Class 11 by giving its examination too and passing it ,so he went directly to Class 12 .He again studied hard cleared Class 12 and went on to pursue a dual degree in a college (ie he completed 2 courses in 5 years which most of his friends completed in 6 years ). Now he had gained 2 years and as most of his peers were droppers he was at par with them . Some similar sort of story has happened with India when it comes to technology Think of this : India does not have a single bullet train in service right now and most of the developed countries had it about 2 decades before India . Now think of Hyperloop - The newest transport system not setup anywhere right now and India is one of the first countries to get an offer from Hyperloop One to setup i...
2 comments
Read more

Patanjali: From how they made it to what went wrong

Patanjali Ayurveda is known as one of the fastest company to reach the 10000 crore revenue mark in product sales, major FMCG firms like took years and even decades to reach this mark. Patanjali has its presence in almost every category of FMCG today. Their exponential growth story was the talk of the town until March 2018 when they faltered from their promise of doubling their revenue figures of 2017 in the year 2018. There are many reasons which might be the cause of the stunted revenue, I think the major ones are: 1) Entry of other FMCG majors in the Ayurveda category of products : Unilever has revived its erstwhile ayurveda products brand Lever Ayush, Colgate Palmolive has started making new ayurvedic variants of their toothpaste and Dabur is also planning to roll out new products in the segment. HUL has shown good growth figures after this and colgate has also started regaining its market share. 2) FSSAI inquiry for post-dating products and products under scanner of Food Regul...
Post a Comment
Read more

Vulnerable Indian Workforce

I made quite a few observations during my recent vacation in the UK and realized that we are using our labour force in quite a futile manner . This a list of places where absolutely no labour was involved and a short description on how it is distributed in our country Fuel Stations  -  They don't have a single person involved in fuel filling we have an average of 15 people (for day and night shift) in every station and lets have a look at the number of fuel stations approximately 56,190 and 56190 x 15 means around 8,42,850 this is approximately how many people we employ in fuel stations . Household maids and servants - Again no household workers in most of the houses in India its approximately 4.2 million or around 42,00,000 . Buses - No bus conductor just the bus driver who prints your ticket and India has around 150000 buses in public sector and conductor in each makes it 150000 bus conductors Street vegetable vendors - None of these everything is availab...
Post a Comment
Read more