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Softbank gets partners
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July 1, 1999: 3:13 p.m. ET
Internet guru forms Web investment unit with News Corp., Vivendi
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LONDON (CNNfn) - Japanese Internet guru Masayoshi Son teamed up with Rupert Murdoch and French company Vivendi Thursday to form a series of Internet ventures.
EPartners, the Internet investment unit of Murdoch's News Corp. (NWS) group, is chipping in $25 million to form eVentures, a joint investment with Japan's Softbank.
The new group plans to provide funding for U.S. Internet companies to establish a bridgehead in Britain, Australia and India. It will have capital of $50 million, contributed equally by the two partners, to invest in what it terms "promising Internet companies".
Softbank is also joining with France's Vivendi to launch a similar venture called VISO, which will cover Internet ventures in continental Europe. Vivendi also will put up $50 million, again to be matched by Softbank.
EVentures' first investment will be the $22.5 million it is putting into a U.K. version of U.S. online mortgage broker E-LOAN. Shares of E-LOAN soared 170 percent to 38 on its first day of trading Wednesday.
VISO initially will focus on the Internet markets of France, Germany, Spain and Italy.
Son, chief executive of Softbank, said "We believe that the success achieved in assisting U.S.-based Internet companies to enter Japan can be duplicated for the U.K. and other countries."
Softbank has built up large stakes in numerous Internet companies, becoming the largest shareholder Yahoo! (YHOO) and E*Trade (EGRP).
EVentures is the second investment for Murdoch's ePartners Internet investment vehicle. EPartners is headed by Mark Booth, former head of Murdoch's U.K. pay-TV division BSkyB (BSY).
EPartners recently bought a stake in technology-based investment bank W.R. Hambrecht & Co. 
-- from staff and wire reports
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