THE INTERNET'S FINACIER COMPANY Softbank, Chairman NET WORTH $8 billion AGE 42 ADDRESSwww.softbank.co.jp BIO Son's Korean heritage made him an outsider growing up in Japan. But he dominated
the Japanese software industry early on, scoring a deal to distribute Microsoft
products just as a kanji-friendly version of Windows hit it big.
Now Son is the ultimate insider. He's facing off against his onetime Redmond
partner, brandishing a robust stock portfolio (he was an early backer of Yahoo)
and a venture fund that has raised $1 billion for new investments like Webvan,
the ambitious online grocery chain.
Other financiers talk of their keiretsu--tightly linked networks of companies.
Son talks of creating a Web zaibatsu--a single-minded Internet industrial
complex. First, though, he has to sell off non-Net properties like Kingston
Technologies, a memory-chip maker, and Ziff- Davis, a magazine publisher. BEST LINE "For the next 10 years, we do nothing but Internet. That's where the
whole society is going to have a big revolution." FORWARD TILT Past performance is not a guarantee of future results. With
venture-capital investments at an all-time high, Son may find himself buying high
and selling low if the market turns sour on Internet companies.
