Masayoshi Son, left, president of Softbank, and News Corp. Chairman Rupert Murdoch, shake hands after they announced a new joint venture, JSkyB, in Tokyo in this Dec. 17, 1996 photo. Just a few years ago, Softbank Corp. was still something of a maverick, shaking up Japan's corporate establishment with its aggressive strategy of investing in Yahoo! Inc., ETrade and other Internet companies. (AP Photo/Itsuo Inouye)