SoftBank profit declines following Sprint perk a year ago

Japanese technology company SoftBank’s fiscal first quarter earnings dropped 39% because of the absence of the cash benefit from the merger of Sprint, which boosted its profits a year ago

TOKYO -- Japanese technology company SoftBank’s fiscal first quarter earnings dropped 39% because of the absence of the cash benefit from the merger of Sprint, which boosted its profits a year ago. Tokyo-based SoftBank Group Corp. reported a 761.5 billion yen ($6.9 billion) profit for April-June on Tuesday, down from 1.26 trillion yen the previous year. Quarterly sales rose nearly 16% to 1.48 trillion yen ($13 billion). SoftBank, whose investment portfolio includes office-space sharing WeWork, Yahoo! Japan and Alibaba, a Chinese e-commerce company, as well as a myriad of other ventures, said it made investments totaling $2.1 billion during the quarter. SoftBank, which was the first to offer the Apple iPhone in the Japanese market, benefited last year when U.S. mobile carrier Sprint, which it owned, merged with T-Mobile, a European telecommunications company.