ML
Lets hope the outcome is better than the last time we got up early.....

Why do we have to get up early? some kind of presentation/prospectus on Tuesday, does anyone know more?

Get Those Stun Guns Ready: Here Comes Masayoshi Son
Softbank is launching an assault on the online-game market

For a guy who spent the late 1990s buying a piece of just about any company that struck his fancy, Masayoshi Son sure has been doing a lot of selling lately. Over the past year, Son's Tokyo-based Softbank Corp. has unloaded parts of its holdings in Yahoo!, Yahoo Japan, and telecom gear-maker UTStarcom for a total of $1.4 billion. In August, Softbank expects to sell its 49% stake in Japan's Aozora Bank for $865 million. Why the sell-off? Broadband. In the past two years, Softbank has emerged as a leading provider of high-speed Internet access in Japan. Now, Son wants to dominate the market for entertainment delivered over the Net. The asset sales "will give me more ammunition to keep fighting," says Son, Softbank's founder and president. Advertisement

Get your stun guns ready: Son's first assault will aim at Japan's online-game market. On July 25 he plans to open a Web portal called BB Games featuring about 50 titles. Players will pay a monthly fee of $8.50 to $13 per title to square off against others across the country. By yearend 2004, Softbank plans to offer as many as 300 games and hopes the site to bring in revenues of at least $400 million per year by 2006. Of that, BB Games will keep 20%, with the remainder going to game developers. "There's no doubt that the killer application for broadband is online games," says Taizo Son, Son's younger brother and a partner in the venture.

Having bet some $1.5 billion on Softbank's Yahoo BB broadband service in the past two years, Son could use a killer app. Today, Yahoo BB has 2.8 million subscribers and holds 25% of Japan's broadband market, just behind leader Nippon Telegraph & Telephone Corp. Problem is, Softbank has spent more than $1 billion to build Yahoo BB's network and at least an additional $500 million on marketing. And it pays NTT some $40 million a month to use the lines linking Yahoo BB to customers' homes. Yahoo BB is now generating $95 million in revenue a month, but Softbank continues to bleed cash. In the fiscal year ended in March, it lost $855 million on revenues of $3.5 billion, compared with a $760 million loss on $3.5 billion in sales in 2001.

Son is hoping to turbocharge revenues by getting his broadband subscribers hooked on services such as games that bring in extra cash. Already, Yahoo BB has attracted 2.5 million users to an Internet phone service, and it's now experimenting with pay-TV over its network. Down the line, Son plans to expand into e-learning and corporate services such as videoconferencing. Japan's broadband content market could be worth $6.4 billion by 2005, a sharp jump from $1.5 billion last year, according to Mitsubishi Research Institute Inc.

Some wonder, though, whether people are ever going to pay for services delivered over the Internet. "It's a bet that I don't think is going to make a lot of money" for Softbank, says Ben Wedmore, an industry analyst with HSBC Securities (Japan) Ltd. Softbank's track record isn't all that great. In March, Son launched BB television, which offers Tokyo customers 14 TV channels over Internet lines as well as access to more than 400 movies for as little as $2.50 each. So far, only 1,000 subscribers have signed up for the $21-per-month service -- though Son says that's because Softbank hasn't really begun marketing yet.

Few, however, doubt that online interactive games will be profitable for Softbank. In Korea, games have emerged as a major driver of traffic on that country's ultrafast Internet connections. Softbank has already attracted 265,000 customers willing to pay $13 per month to play Ragnarok, a community-building game in which players assume the identity of a cartoon character.

Son isn't the only one who sees the potential for black ink in the blood-and-pixels of online games. NTT, Softbank's biggest rival in broadband services, is considering a game portal of its own, and Sony offers a similar service to owners of its game machines. Still, Son is wagering almost everything he owns. For the father of the Japanese Net, this is a thriller not even BB Games can top.

By Irene M. Kunii in Tokyo

i repeat, Why do we have to get up early?

Kivver: I shouldn't bother, TAD's share price, or any other, for that matter, is unlikely to be influenced by any of us crawling out of our pits at some ungodly hour.

Price looks attractive but I'm not sure if it's bottomed yet.

Kivver

As you may or may not know Tues is when the details of the aquisition are to be announced, according to Shares Mag. I was personally hoping for a little bit of news as well.
Now as news is usually announced in the morning!! You follow?

M

As Hermans Hermits would say (and i got up early) 'no news today, my tad has gone away'

So did I!!!!!!!!

Must admit this is testing even my paitence.
Still if what i hear is correct the wait will be worth it.

M
(a very tired M)

the end of all my hopes, the end of all my dreams.

alternatively


" im into something good "

where is the prospectus?

as is usual with Tad it's late.

Don't want to be rude, but why get up early for this?

Oops

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glad i never over invested in this one, think i will take my 40% loss and get out of this one and have a lie in, lol. u gotta laugh :0)

kivver - not advising you to get out, but if I had been holding this I would have closed it a long time ago, big mistake to get too attached.

Best of luck on what you decide.

prod

some think is happening more buys than sells.

If you have a long position in TAD, now is not the time to sell.
Just wait until after you see the Stream Theory details.

M

Moneylender - Not saying to sell, just if I had been holding these for that lenght of time, I would not wait and hope it will come back, on the chance some good news is around the corner, once a share hits my stop, its gone, I'm not in this for love, at the end of the day I just count the pound notes.

But 40 or 50+% loss on a single holding???

prod :-0

Please be advised that the following Tadpole-Cartesia statement is being
streamed today to business and technology editors in North America.

Sincerely,

Hugh Paterson
Patcom for Tadpole Technology plc

###

Tadpole-Cartesia Appoints Fryhover Director of Sales and Marketing for North
American Operations

Carlsbad (CA), July 27, 2004 - Tadpole-Cartesia, Inc. today announces the
appointment of Don Fryhover as director of sales and marketing for North
American markets. In this capacity, Fryhover will lead Tadpole-Cartesia's
drive to extend its ESRI-based enterprise data management business with
government, municipalities, and service industries.

Fryhover is a seasoned senior executive with a track record of delivering
sustained growth to geospatial vendors. For the past fifteen years, Fryhover
has held senior management positions with utility data management company
Analytical Surveys, Inc. where he was ultimately senior vice president
responsible for the planning, direction and execution of ASI's business
development initiatives.

Fryhover holds a degree in business administration from Texas Tech
University and is a member of GITA (Geospatial Information & Technology
Association). Published works include various papers for GITA conferences
and articles in leading GIS magazines.

Image - Don Fryhover - http://www.patcom-media.com/Fryhover1.JPG

About Tadpole-Cartesia
Tadpole-Cartesia, a software business unit of Tadpole Technology plc,
provides enterprise infrastructure software solutions to support the
management, replication and distribution of geographic data within and
between organizations. Tadpole-Cartesia is a strategic partner of ESRI, the
world's leading GIS company. Further information on Tadpole-Cartesia's
businesses on 760-929-8345 (US), +44 131 6680200 (UK), by email
sales@us.tadpole.com, and at www.tadpolecartesia.com.

ends