title: Patrice Lumumba

text: The circumstances of Lumumba's death have led him to often be portrayed as a martyr. While his demise led to an outburst of mass demonstrations abroad and quick creation of a martyr image internationally, the immediate reaction to his death in the Congo was not as uniform. Tetela, Songye, and Luba-Katanga peoples created folks songs of mourning for him, but these were groups which had been involved in political alliances with him and, at the time, Lumumba was unpopular in large segments of the Congolese populace, particularly in the capital, Bas-Congo, Katanga, and South Kasai. Some of his actions and the smearing of him as a communist had also generated disaffection in the army, civil service, labour unions, and the Catholic Church. Lumumba's reputation as a martyr in the collective memory of the Congolese was only cemented later, partly due to the initiatives of Mobutu. In Congolese collective memory, it is perceived that Lumumba was killed through Western machinations because he defended the Congo's self-determination. The killing is viewed in the context of the memory as a symbolic moment in which the Congo lost its dignity in the international realm and the ability to determine its future, which has since been controlled by the West. Lumumba's determination to pursue his goals is extrapolated upon the Congolese people as their own; securing the Congo's dignity and self-determination would thus ensure their "redemption" from victimisation by Western powers. Historian David Van Reybrouck wrote, "In no time Lumumba became a martyr of decolonisation ... He owed this status more to the horrible end of his life than to his political successes." Journalist Michela Wrong remarked that "He really did become a hero after his death, in a way that one has to wonder if he would have been such a hero if he had remained and run the country and faced all the problems that running a country as big as Congo would have inevitably brought." Drama scholar Peit Defraeya wrote, "Lumumba as a dead martyr has become a more compelling figure in liberationist discourse than the controversial live politician." Historian Pedro Monaville wrote that "his globally iconic status was not commensurate with his more complex legacy in [the] Congo." Cooptation of Lumumba's legacy by Congolese presidents and state media has generated doubts in the Congolese public about his reputation.


title: Patrice Lumumba

text: In 1961 Adoula became Prime Minister of the Congo. Shortly after assuming office he went to Stanleyville and laid a wreath of flowers at an impromptu monument established for Lumumba. After Tshombe became Prime Minister in 1964, he also went to Stanleyville and did the same. On 30 June 1966, Mobutu rehabilitated Lumumba's image and proclaimed him a "national hero". By a presidential decree, the Brouwez House, site of Lumumba's torture on the night of his murder, became a place of pilgrimage in the Congo. He declared a series of other measures meant to commemorate Lumumba, though few of these were ever executed aside from the release of a banknote with his visage the subsequent year. This banknote was the only paper money during Mobutu's rule that bore the face of a leader other than the incumbent president. In following years state mention of Lumumba declined and Mobutu's regime viewed unofficial tributes to him with suspicion. Following Laurent-Désiré Kabila's seizure of power in the 1990s, a new line of Congolese francs was issued bearing Lumumba's image. In January 2003 Joseph Kabila, who succeeded his father as president, inaugurated a statue of Lumumba. In Guinea, Lumumba was featured on a coin and two regular banknotes despite not having any national ties to the country. This was an unprecedented occurrence in the modern history of national currency, as images of foreigners are normally reserved only for specially-released commemorative money. As of 2020, Lumumba has been featured on 16 different postage stamps. Many streets and public squares around the world have been named after him. The Peoples' Friendship University of the USSR was renamed "Patrice Lumumba Peoples' Friendship University" in 1961. It was renamed again in 1992.


title: Patrice Lumumba

text: Lumumba is viewed as one of the "fathers of independence" of the Congo. The image of Lumumba appears frequently in social media and is often used as a rallying cry in demonstrations of social defiance. His figure is prevalent in art and literature, mostly outside of the Congo. He was referenced by numerous African-American writers of the American civil rights movement, especially in their works of the post-civil rights era. Malcolm X declared him "the greatest black man who ever walked the African continent".


title: Patrice Lumumba

text: Numerous songs and plays have been dedicated to Lumumba. Many praise his character, contrasting it with the alleged irresponsible and undisciplined nature of the Congolese people. Among the most prominent works featuring him are Aimé Césaire's 1966 play, "Une saison au Congo", and Raoul Peck's 1992 documentary and 2000 feature film, "Lumumba, la mort d'un prophète" and "Lumumba", respectively. Congolese musicians Franco Luambo and Joseph Kabasele both wrote songs in tribute to Lumumba shortly after his death. Other musical works mentioning him include "Lumumba" by Miriam Makeba, "Done Too Soon" by Neil Diamond and "Waltz for Lumumba" by the Spencer Davis Group. His name is also mentioned in rap music; Arrested Development, Nas, David Banner, Black Thought, Damso, Baloji, Médine, Sammus and many others have mentioned him in their work. In popular painting he is often paired with notions of sacrifice and redemption, even being portrayed as a messiah, with his downfall being his passion. Tshibumba Kanda-Matulu painted a series chronicling Lumumba's life and career. Lumumba is relatively absent from Congolese writing, and he is often portrayed with only subtle or ambiguous references. Congolese authors Sony Lab'ou Tansi's and Sylvain Bemba's fictional "Parentheses of Blood" and "Léopolis", respectively, both feature characters with strong similarities to Lumumba. In written tributes to Mobutu, Lumumba is usually portrayed as an adviser to the former. Writer Charles Djungu-Simba observed, "Lumumba is rather considered as a vestige of the past, albeit an illustrious past". His surname is often used to identify a long drink of hot or cold chocolate and rum.


title: Nicollette Sheridan

text: Nicollette Sheridan (born 21 November 1963) is an English-born American actress. She began her career as a fashion model before landing a role in the short-lived ABC primetime soap opera "Paper Dolls" in 1984, as well as starring in the romantic comedy film "The Sure Thing" (1985). She rose to prominence as Paige Matheson on the CBS primetime soap opera "Knots Landing" (1986–1993), for which she received two Soap Opera Digest Awards. Thereafter, Sheridan appeared in lead roles in numerous television films and miniseries, including "Lucky Chances" (1990), "Virus" (1995), and "The People Next Door" (1996). She also appeared in the feature films "Noises Off" (1992), "Spy Hard" (1996), "Beverly Hills Ninja" (1997), and "" (2007).


title: Nicollette Sheridan

text: From 2004 to 2009, Sheridan starred as Edie Britt on the ABC television series "Desperate Housewives", for which she was nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress – Series, Miniseries or Television Film in 2005. From 2018 to 2019, she portrayed Alexis Carrington on The CW's "Dynasty" reboot.


title: Nicollette Sheridan

text: Sheridan was born in Worthing, England, the daughter of actress Sally Adams, who gave birth to her at age 16. When Sheridan was less than a year old, her father left the family, and she has not seen him since.


title: Nicollette Sheridan

text: In 1969, her mother Sally (billed as Dani Sheridan) featured in the James Bond film "On Her Majesty's Secret Service" as one of Blofeld's "Angels of Death". There, Sally met Blofeld actor Telly Savalas, who eventually became her "de facto" husband and Sheridan's stepfather. Sally became known as Sally Savalas.


title: Nicollette Sheridan

text: Nicollette emigrated to the United States from the United Kingdom in 1973, when she was 10 years old.


title: Nicollette Sheridan

text: Sheridan began her career as a fashion model, appearing in the pages of "Vogue" and on the cover of "Cosmopolitan", shot by Francesco Scavullo. Whilst still a teenager, she famously starred in a Martini TV commercial, delivering the beverage through the streets of LA on roller skates. In 1984, she made her acting debut in the short-lived ABC primetime soap opera "Paper Dolls". The series was cancelled after half a season, and the following year, Sheridan starred in the romantic comedy film "The Sure Thing". Later that year, she was cast in the pilot for another ABC prime time soap, "Dark Mansions", intended to be a cross between "Dynasty" and "Dark Shadows". The project did not go to series, but the pilot episode was aired as a television movie in 1986.


title: Nicollette Sheridan

text: In 1986, Sheridan joined the cast of the CBS primetime soap opera "Knots Landing" as vixen Paige Matheson. She started in a recurring role, but had become a series regular by the 1988–89 season. Sheridan remained with the series for seven seasons until its end in 1993. For her performance in the role, she won the 1990 "Soap Opera Digest" award for Outstanding Lead Actress: Prime Time, and the 1991 "Soap Opera Digest" award for Outstanding Heroine: Prime Time. The same year, she was named one of "People" "50 Most Beautiful People".


title: Nicollette Sheridan

text: In the 1990s, Sheridan starred in a number of television movies. In 1990, she starred in "Deceptions" and played Lucky Santangelo in the television adaptation of Jackie Collins' "Lucky Chances". The following years, she had star-billed roles in "Somebody's Daughter" (1992), "Time to Heal" (1994), "Shadows of Desire" (1994), "Virus" (1995), "Silver Strand" (1995), "The People Next Door" (1996), "Murder in My Mind" (1997), "Dead Husbands" (1998), "The Spiral Staircase" (2000), "Haven't We Met Before?" (2002), "Deadly Betrayal" (2003), and "Deadly Visions" (2004). Despite her television lead roles, her film career was limited. In 1992, she co-starred opposite Carol Burnett and Michael Caine in the comedy "Noises Off", and later had only two studio movies: "Spy Hard" (1996) opposite Leslie Nielsen, and "Beverly Hills Ninja" (1997) starring Chris Farley. Additionally, Sheridan auditioned for two leading sitcom roles, Rachel Green on "Friends" and Grace Adler on "Will & Grace", though the respective roles ultimately went to Jennifer Aniston and Debra Messing. However, Sheridan did make a guest appearance opposite Messing in 2003.


title: Nicollette Sheridan

text: In 2004, Sheridan was cast as Edie Britt in the ABC comedy-drama series "Desperate Housewives". The character was originally written as a recurring role in the series. Sheridan had originally auditioned for Bree Van de Kamp, one of the series' more prominent roles. On November 15, 2004, Sheridan (in character as Britt) appeared with NFL wide receiver Terrell Owens in an introductory skit to that evening's "Monday Night Football" episode. Some observers condemned the skit as sexually suggestive, and ABC later apologized for airing it. On 14 March 2005, the Federal Communications Commission ruled that the skit did not violate decency standards, because it contained no outright nudity or foul language. Sheridan was nominated for a 2005 Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress – Series, Miniseries or Television Film and was ranked number 48 on "Maxim" 2006 Hot 100 List. In February 2009, during the show's fifth season, Sheridan announced her departure from "Desperate Housewives". Her exit episode aired in April 2009, when Edie Britt was killed off. Unlike the other main characters who had been killed off over the years on "Desperate Housewives", Sheridan did not make an appearance in the show's final episode, which aired in May 2012.


title: Nicollette Sheridan

text: In April 2010, Sheridan filed a $20 million lawsuit against "Desperate Housewives" creator and producer Marc Cherry and ABC Television, alleging that she was assaulted by Cherry on the set of the show and was then fired when she reported the alleged abuse to the network. In her lawsuit, Sheridan claimed wrongful termination, assault and battery, gender violence, discrimination based on sex, sexual orientation, and age, and intentional infliction of emotional distress. She also alleged that Cherry was abusive to other cast members and writers. ABC responded by stating that while they were unaware of this particular complaint, they had investigated similar claims made by Sheridan and reportedly found them to be without merit. The show's stars, Teri Hatcher, Felicity Huffman, Marcia Cross, and Eva Longoria, pledged their support to help Cherry in his battle against Sheridan's allegations.


title: Nicollette Sheridan

text: In May 2011, a judge granted permission for the case to continue to trial, but threw out Sheridan's claims of harassment. The case went to trial on 27 February 2012. Cherry asserted that the alleged assault was in fact a tap to the head with his fingers, done in rehearsals when he was demonstrating to Sheridan how she should play a physical gag in a scene. He also stated that the decision to kill off her character was already approved in May 2008 (several months before the alleged hitting incident in September 2008) due, in part, to the need to reduce the show's budget. He also cited Sheridan's unprofessional on-set behavior (such as habitual lateness, not learning her lines, and feuding with her co-stars), and the fact that her character had simply "run its course" as other reasons for the decision. On 13 March 2012, the judge dismissed the battery charge against Cherry due to lack of evidence, and the lawsuit then focused solely on Sheridan's alleged wrongful termination by ABC. Closing arguments were heard on 14 March 2012 and the jury began their deliberations. By 19 March 2012, the jury had failed to reach a verdict and a mistrial was declared.


title: Nicollette Sheridan

text: A retrial was scheduled for September 2012, but this was dismissed in August when the Los Angeles Court of Appeal determined that Sheridan had not been wrongfully fired. The court rejected Sheridan's argument that ABC's decision not to renew her option for another season was analogous to a violation of at-will employment. The court reasoned that unlike an at-will employee whose contract could remain in force indefinitely, Sheridan's contract was for a set term that had expired, so ABC had not terminated her, but simply chosen not to rehire her for another fixed-term contract. However, the court declared that Sheridan was free to file an amended lawsuit alleging that ABC retaliated against her for complaining about unsafe working conditions. A further appeal made by Sheridan to the California Supreme Court was rejected in November 2012. A new trial based solely on the retaliation claim was set for December 2013, but this, too, was dismissed in October 2013 by a judge who stated that Sheridan should have exhausted her claims through a labor commissioner before pursuing a trial. A further attempt by Sheridan to secure a new trial was refused on 16 January 2014, however the same judge reversed his decision on 29 January 2014 and granted Sheridan a new trial. This decision was later reversed in August 2014 by the Los Angeles Court of Appeal, which found the judge's decision to grant Sheridan a new trial was in error.


title: Nicollette Sheridan

text: In 2010, Sheridan was cast in an untitled CBS comedy pilot as a mother who battles with her British ex-husband (played by Paul Kaye) to get her teenaged daughter to stardom, but the show was not picked up. In September 2010, Sheridan starred in the Hallmark Channel film, "Honeymoon for One", which was set in Ireland. The film premiered on the Hallmark Channel on 13 August 2011. In 2013, she starred and co-produced another Hallmark movie, called "The Christmas Spirit". In an interview in November 2013, Sheridan announced that she was hoping to find a network for a half-hour comedy series that she is currently writing herself. She also co-starred in two independent comedy movies, "Jewtopia" (2012) and "Let's Kill Ward's Wife" (2014). In 2016, she filmed one more Hallmark movie, called "All Yours".


title: Nicollette Sheridan

text: On 28 November 2017, it was announced that Sheridan was cast in The CW remake of "Dynasty" as Alexis Morell Carrington, a role played by Joan Collins in the original series. Mark Pedowitz, the president of The CW, who had been president of ABC Studios during Sheridan's run on "Desperate Housewives", called her about the role himself. He said, "I was big fan of Nicollette from way back when. She wanted it, and she will be great in it." She received positive reviews for her debut as Alexis, and was promoted to series regular status for the second season. The CW announced on 25 February 2019 that Sheridan would be leaving "Dynasty" to focus on "some personal family responsibilities." Sheridan said in her own statement that she was leaving to spend more time with her terminally ill mother in Los Angeles. She last appeared in the episode "Motherly Overprotectiveness".


title: Nicollette Sheridan

text: During the 1980s, Sheridan dated teen idols Leif Garrett and Scott Baio. On 7 September 1991, she married actor Harry Hamlin, her co-star from the 1990 TV movie "Deceptions". Hamlin filed for divorce on 21 August 1992, listing their date of separation as 13 July. From July 1992 to September 1995, Sheridan dated singer Michael Bolton. She was then involved for three years with Australian Simon Main, a relationship that ended in 2000 when Main was sentenced to four years in prison for trafficking ecstasy.


title: Nicollette Sheridan

text: She began dating Swedish personal trainer Nicklas Söderblom in 2004 and became engaged to him on New Year's Eve 2004; the pair called off the engagement in October 2005. In October 2005 Sheridan was on a five-day photo-shoot in Australia, and met with ex-boyfriend Main following his release from prison. That December, she rekindled her romance with Bolton. Sheridan and Bolton announced their engagement in March 2006. In March 2008, Sheridan posed nude for a London Fog charity ad which also featured Bolton. Sheridan and Bolton broke off their engagement in August 2008.


title: Nicollette Sheridan

text: Sheridan married Aaron Phypers in December 2015, but the couple separated six months later. Their divorce was finalized in August 2018.


title: Nicollette Sheridan

text: On 19 February 2019, the second episode of the ninth season of "The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills" featured Denise Richards and Lisa Rinna (current wife of Harry Hamlin) discussing their connection via their respective marriages to Sheridan's former husbands. Rinna recounts details about Sheridan having an affair with Michael Bolton while Hamlin was in Canada, resulting in the dissolution of their marriage. Days later, Sheridan denied Rinna's claims on Twitter, stating that she and Hamlin ended their marriage "nose to nose" in Canada. Hamlin came to Rinna's defense, though Sheridan re-affirmed "the end of our marriage had nothing to do with anyone other than us." Fans of "The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills" have since advocated for Sheridan to join the cast of the show, especially after Richards' departure at the end of the tenth season. In November 2020, producer Andy Cohen confirmed that Sheridan would not be asked to join the show due to her feud with Rinna.


title: Chaebol

text: A chaebol (, ; ) is a large industrial South Korean conglomerate run and controlled by an individual or family. A chaebol often consists of multiple diversified affiliates, controlled by a person or group whose power over the group often exceeds legal authority. Several dozen large South Korean family-controlled corporate groups fall under this definition. The term first appeared in English text in 1972.


title: Chaebol

text: Chaebols have also played a significant role in South Korean politics. In 1988, a member of a chaebol family, Chung Mong-joon, president of Hyundai Heavy Industries, successfully ran for the National Assembly of South Korea. Other business leaders were also chosen to be members of the National Assembly through proportional representation. Hyundai has made efforts in the thawing of North Korean relations, despite some controversy. Many South Korean family-run chaebols have been criticized for low dividend payouts and other governance practices that favor controlling shareholders at the expense of ordinary investors.


title: Chaebol

text: "Chaebol" derived from the McCune–Reischauer romanization, "chaebŏl", of the Korean word "jaebeol" (, from "jae" "wealth or property" + "beol" "faction or clan" – also written with the same Chinese characters 財閥 as "zaibatsu" in Japan). The first known use in an English text was in 1972.


title: Chaebol

text: South Korea's economy was small and predominantly agricultural well into the mid-20th century. However, the policies of President Park Chung Hee spurred rapid industrialisation by promoting large businesses, following his seizure of power in 1961. The First Five Year Economic Plan by the government set industrial policy toward new investment, and chaebols were to be guaranteed loans from the banking sector. The chaebol played a key role in developing new industries, markets, and export production, helping make South Korea one of the Four Asian Tigers.


title: Chaebol

text: Although South Korea's major industrial programs did not begin until the early 1960s, the origins of the country's entrepreneurial elite were found in the political economy of the 1950s. Very few Koreans owned or managed larger corporations during the Japanese colonial period. After the Japanese left in 1945, some Korean businessmen obtained the assets of some of the Japanese firms, several of which grew into the chaebols of the 1990s.


title: Chaebol

text: The Japanese colonial government sometimes sought to co-opt local businessmen, and wealthy individuals often linked to land ownership, and a significant minority of industries were jointly owned by Japanese and Korean businesses. A few Korean chaebols such as Kyungbang came into existence during this era.


title: Chaebol

text: The companies, as well as certain other firms that were formed in the late 1940s and early 1950s, had close links with Syngman Rhee's First Republic, which lasted from 1948 to 1960. It is confirmed that many of these companies received special treatment from the government in return for kickbacks and other payments.


title: Chaebol

text: When the military took over the government in 1961, its leaders announced that they would eradicate the corruption that had plagued the Rhee administration and eliminate "injustice" from society. Some leading industrialists were arrested and charged with corruption, but the new government realized that it would need the help of entrepreneurs if the government's ambitious plans to modernize the economy were to be fulfilled. A compromise was reached, under which many of the accused corporate leaders paid fines to the government. Subsequently, there was increased cooperation between corporate and government leaders in modernizing the economy.


title: Chaebol

text: Government-chaebol cooperation was essential to the subsequent economic growth and astounding successes that began in the early 1960s. Driven by the urgent need to turn the economy away from consumer goods and light industries toward heavy, chemical, and import-substitution industries, political leaders and government planners relied on the ideas and cooperation of chaebol leaders. The government provided the blueprints for industrial expansion; the chaebol realized the plans. However, the chaebol-led industrialization accelerated the monopolistic and oligopolistic concentration of capital and economically profitable activities in the hands of a limited number of conglomerates.


title: Chaebol

text: Park used the chaebol as a means of economic growth. Exports were encouraged, reversing Rhee's policy of reliance on imports. Performance quotas were established.


title: Chaebol

text: Chaebols were able to grow because of two factors: foreign loans and special favours. Access to foreign technology also was critical to the growth of the chaebol through the 1980s. Under the guise of "guided capitalism", the government selected companies to undertake projects and channelled funds from foreign loans. The government guaranteed repayment should a company be unable to repay its foreign creditors. Additional loans were made available from domestic banks. In the late 1980s, chaebols dominated the industrial sector and were especially prevalent in manufacturing, trading, and heavy industries.


title: Chaebol

text: Chaebols experienced tremendous growth beginning in the early 1960s in connection with the expansion of South Korean exports. The growth resulted from the production of a diversity of goods rather than just one or two products. Innovation and the willingness to develop new product lines were critical. In the 1950s and early 1960s, chaebols concentrated on wigs and textiles; by the mid-1970s and 1980s, heavy, defence, and chemical industries had become predominant. While these activities were important in the early 1990s, real growth was occurring in the electronics and high-technology industries. Chaebols also were responsible for turning the trade deficit in 1985 into a trade surplus in 1986. The current account balance, however, fell from more than US$14 billion in 1988 to US$5 billion in 1989.


title: Chaebol

text: Chaebols continued their explosive growth in export markets in the 1980s. By the late 1980s, they had become financially independent and secure, thereby eliminating the need for further government-sponsored credit and assistance.


title: Chaebol

text: By the 1990s, South Korea was one of the largest newly industrialised countries and boasted a standard of living comparable to industrialized countries.


title: Chaebol

text: President Kim Young-sam began to challenge the chaebol, but it was not until the 1997 Asian financial crisis that the weaknesses of the system were widely understood. Of the 30 largest chaebols, 11 collapsed between July 1997 and June 1999. Initially, the crisis was caused by a sharp drop in the value of the currency and led to immediate cash flow concerns needed to pay foreign debts; however, the lower costs ultimately helped the stronger chaebols expand their brands to Western markets. Yet, the decline of nearby export markets in Southeast Asia, which had been fueling growth by incurring large debts, proved fatal to many. The remaining chaebols also became far more specialized in their focus. For example, with a population ranked 26th in the world, before the crisis, the country had seven major automobile manufacturers. Afterward, only two major manufacturers remained intact though two additional continued, in a smaller capacity, under General Motors and Renault. Chaebol debts were not only to state industrial banks but also to independent banks and their financial services subsidiaries. The scale of the loan defaults meant that banks could neither foreclose nor write off bad loans without themselves collapsing, so the failure to service these debts quickly caused a systemic banking crisis, and South Korea turned to the IMF for assistance. The most spectacular example came in mid-1999, with the collapse of the Daewoo Group, which had some US$80 billion in unpaid debt. At the time, it was the largest corporate bankruptcy in history.


title: Chaebol

text: Investigations also exposed widespread corruption in the chaebol, particularly fraudulent accounting, and bribery.


title: Chaebol

text: Still, South Korea recovered quickly from the crisis, and most of the blame for economic problems was shifted to the IMF. The remaining chaebols have grown substantially since the crisis, but they have maintained far lower debt levels.


title: Chaebol

text: In 2014, the largest chaebol, Samsung, composed about 17% of the South Korean economy and held roughly US$17 billion in cash. However, recent financial statements of these chaebols showed that chaebols are slowly losing power over either international competition or internal disruptions from newly emerging startups. The net profit/income of South Korea's top conglomerates has decreased from 2012 to 2015. Not only did their profits stop increasing, but certain chaebols such as LG, have been making losses and losing talent.


title: Chaebol

text: Some chaebols are one large corporation while others have broken up into loosely connected groups of separate companies sharing a common name. Even in the latter case, each is almost always owned, controlled, or managed by the same family group.


title: Chaebol

text: South Korea's chaebols are often compared with Japan's "keiretsu" business groupings, the successors of the pre-war "zaibatsu". While the "chaebol" is similar to the "zaibatsu" (the words share the same hanja/kanji), some major differences have evolved:


title: Chaebol

text: The chaebol model is heavily reliant on a complex system of interlocking ownership. The owner, with the help of family members, family-owned charities, and senior managers from subsidiaries, has to control only three of four public companies, which control other companies that control subsidiaries. A good example of this practice would be the owner of Doosan, who controlled more than 20 subsidiaries with only minor participation in about 5 companies.


title: Chaebol

text: The chairman of a typical chaebol possesses a small portion of the equity in the companies under the large umbrella of the chaebol but is very powerful in making decisions and controls all management. For example, Samsung owns 0.5% of the group's listed firms. That demonstrates a weakness in the rule of law. The method that allows this type of possession is called cross-holding, which is a horizontal and vertical structure that enhances the control of the chairman.


title: Chaebol

text: The typical culture at one of these conglomerates is highly paternalistic. Much of the environment is defined by the chairman who acts as a "fatherly figure" to his subordinates. This can be traced back to the infusion of Neo-Confucian values that permeate Korean society. A chaebol head's demeanour towards his employee can be described as "loving" while maintaining "sternness and a sense of responsibility". Workers commit to long hours, most notably on weekends and holidays, to appease their superiors. Company outings and drinking sessions tend to be compulsory to foster a sense of family and belonging among employees. Employers believe that enhancing a common bond between them would translate into prosperity and productivity for the company. Other practices that would be uncommon for Western workplaces to engage in include gift-giving to employees and arranging dates for workers in search of relationships or marriage.


title: Chaebol

text: Chaebols are notoriously hierarchical. As such, it is unusual for an individual to challenge or question the decision-making of his or her boss. This dynamic adds to the culture that orients itself around whoever is in charge but can lead to undesirable circumstances. For example, the Asiana flight 214 crash led critics to speculate that cultural factors prevented a pilot on board from aborting the low-speed landing and thus straying from his superior's commands. Promotion is rarely merit-based. Rather, it is through the order of age and time served to the conglomerate. This is reflected by the fact that most executives are far older than their employees. If a worker does not attain an executive or senior-management role by the age of fifty, he or she is commonly forced to resign. Again, this is attributable to the age-hierarchy dynamics in Korean Confucian culture. A typical firm heavily emphasizes loyalty to the firm, as demonstrated in the standard recruiting process. Newly acquired employees undergo an intense initiation that includes activities such as training camps and singing company-unique songs that reiterate the production goals of the firm.


title: Chaebol

text: Because of South Korea's long-lasting relationship with chaebols, South Korea has always suppressed and ignored labour unions. As of 2019, there are only two legally recognized labour unions in South Korea: The Federation of Korean Trade Unions and the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions. Despite these unions' attempts at reform, the South Korean government does not take many actions. If a union oversteps and openly criticizes a chaebol, it faces serious repercussions, as chaebols are essentially government entities. It is well known that chaebols evade taxes regularly. When compared to non-chaebol companies, though, chaebols are less likely to evade taxes when facing issues with unions. This is most likely because non-chaebols will actively evade taxes to meet appropriate wages for unionized workers. Chaebols, on the other hand, have enough financial wealth to make "under-the-table" arrangements with unions.


title: Chaebol

text: Even though the chaebol system helped bring about rapid growth and helped Korea launch itself on the international stage, it caused negative impacts on the Korean economy.


title: Chaebol

text: The origins of the chaebol system in South Korea come as a consequence of the Korean War. The war resulted in much destruction and halted industrial production, which led the government to print money to pay for the war and meet the requirements of the United Nations forces for the Korean currency, all of which caused mass inflation. This inflation caused many commodity prices to double every six months.


title: Chaebol

text: The government had to react and so devised a plan in providing strong financial incentives to private companies between the 1960s and 1970s. These included the government's choosing to select various family businesses to distribute the incentives (imported raw materials, commodities, bank loans). The impact was immediate, and most of the businesses flourished rapidly. The protection of infant companies allowed them to develop because of the highly regulated market, which prevented foreign companies from entering. Many companies that were not in the circle of businesses saw the system as flawed and corrupted. Corruption scandals have occurred periodically in all chaebols. Such incidents suggest a form of "crony capitalism" which is common in developing countries.


title: Chaebol

text: Because the government gave out incentives to help businesses, it had a lot of control over them. However, there was no way to ensure the businesses would use the incentives effectively and efficiently. In other words, there was no external monitoring system to monitor chaebols and ensure that they were efficient in the allocation of resources. All businesses undertake internal market transactions, which constitute "purchase and sale of intermediate inputs, the provision and receipt of loan collaterals, and the provision and receipt of payment guarantees among member firms in a business group". There is the question of efficiency, especially in production and management. Therefore, the chaebol system was not very transparent. Behind the scenes, businesses were provided with subsidiary financing and intragroup transactions. This allowed them easy loans to cover their deficits, and before the 1997 Asian financial crisis, huge debts had accumulated, many of which were hidden. That gave the illusion that the system was flourishing into the 1990s.


title: Chaebol

text: According to the Defense Language Institute Foreign Language Center, the majority of South Korea's economy is driven by exports. South Korea is one of the leading exporters worldwide. Additionally, the majority of investors in the Korean stock market are foreign investors. Out of 711 listed companies in the Korean stock market, approximately 683 have shares that are held by foreign investors. Nearly a third of the market's value is owned by foreigners, a trend that is expected to continue.


title: Chaebol

text: Because of their major role in the Korean stock market, foreign investors play a massive part in whether or not chaebol conglomerates remain financially successful. Foreign investors tend to avoid chaebols, especially those that displayed heavy political influence in South Korea, like Samsung and Hyundai. Investors are reluctant to invest in large control-ownership disparity businesses because these companies tended to cheat shareholders to have higher personal financial gain. This information is extremely helpful, especially when it comes to determining how these corrupt conglomerates are still heavily supported, considering foreign investors show little interest in them. A study published in the Journal of the Japanese and International Economies found that after the 1997 Asian financial crisis, foreign investment behavioural patterns changed drastically. While foreign investors like to hold shares in large companies with high profit and liquidity margins, they do not show any particular interest in either chaebol or non-chaebol companies. Nonetheless, chaebols are still able to survive, highlighting just how much power and aid they receive from the Korean government.


title: Chaebol

text: During the 1997 Asian financial crisis, bankers feared that chaebols would go bankrupt so they allowed these businesses to roll over their loans each time they were unable to repay their debts. Many did not believe that the chaebols were capable of collapsing and that the more they borrowed, the safer they were.


title: Chaebol

text: However, the theory was proven wrong when many businesses collapsed during the crisis. Since they were linked through debt guarantees, many of the companies fell into a chain reaction. The focus on capacity expansion created debt that was manageable when the economy was growing. However, when the economy stalled, debt-to-equity ratios became a huge problem.


title: Chaebol

text: Since the crisis, chaebols had less debt and were less vulnerable to similar crises, as was demonstrated in the 2008 crisis. With the growth of the fewer remaining chaebols, however, each of them occupies a larger portion of the economy.


title: Chaebol

text: The protectionist policies and preferable government treatment granted chaebols the ability to exhibit monopolistic behaviour. The absence of a market free of intervention meant that "true competition" became a rarity in South Korea. Especially in the era before the 1997 Asian financial crisis, the only products available to the Korean people were those made by chaebols. Therefore, the social fabric of the country lacked a welcoming culture toward entrepreneurship. The intensity and extent of market concentration became evident as 80% of the country's GDP is derived from chaebols. The largest of the group, Samsung, exports 20% of South Korea's goods and services alone. Although no longer financially supported by the government, these firms have attained economies of scale on such a massive level that it is extremely difficult for a startup or small or medium enterprise (SME) to surmount the high barriers to entry. A majority of these smaller companies ended up becoming acquired by the chaebols, thereby further stacking their size and economic dominance. During recent years a growing trend to scale globally has increased among aspiring Korean entrepreneurs. Conversely, chaebols have also been moving money abroad with the tacit endorsement of the South Korean government and investing in commercial enterprises, particularly in Koreatown Manhattan, New York City.


title: Chaebol

text: To this day, chaebols maintain dominance across all industries. Reductions in tariffs and the removal of trade regulations designed to protect Korean conglomerates have led to increased competition from abroad. However, among domestic firms, chaebols have kept their market share intact. Most notably, Apple's entry into the smartphone market pressured rival Samsung into diversifying its revenue streams from overseas. All but 3 of the top 50 firms listed on the Korean Stock Exchange are designated as chaebols. Consequently, chaebols have more bargaining power and often take pricing action that squeezes both suppliers and consumers. Typically the firms down the supply chain fail to increase their profit margins enough to expand and thus never see growth. Collusion among chaebols is commonplace. Price-fixing acts mean consumers expect to pay an inflated value for most goods and services. For instance, in 2012 Samsung and LG Electronics were fined for colluding to raise prices for home appliances.


title: Chaebol

text: Since the inception of the chaebol, the government has been closely involved in its affairs. Many of the reforms enacted over the years, especially those under President Kim Dae-Jung, have cracked down on kickbacks and preferential treatment. Moreover, the state is no longer a majority shareholder of any chaebol. But their sheer size and wealth have been used to gain influence. For the most part, the government sees the function of chaebols as crucial to the Korean economy. When President Lee Myung-Bak took office, he pardoned Samsung Group chairman Lee Kun-Hee for tax evasion. President Lee then proceeded to champion pro-chaebol deals, including a nuclear energy contract with the city of Abu Dhabi, and loosened laws preventing the conglomerates from owning financial services companies. Samsung's leader is not the only chaebol chairman to be excused from a criminal conviction. Choi Tae-Won of SK Group, Chung Mong-Koo of Hyundai, Kim Seung-Youn of Hanwha, and Shin Dong-bin of Lotte are a few examples of chairmen who have been charged, convicted, or are currently serving a prison sentence for white-collar crime. Accusations include bribery, tax evasion, accounting fraud, embezzlement, and violent crime. Typically chaebol chairmen are pardoned. 15 August is recognized in South Korea as Liberation Day. This is when the president forgives the chairmen for their infractions to ensure they remain in power in their companies. In the rare case that an executive is sentenced to prison, as the CEOs of SK and CJ group were, it is typically a relatively light punishment of up to 4 years depending on the charge.


title: Chaebol

text: Collusion between chaebol members and the government granted preferential statuses to the companies. A chaebol would funnel bribes to politicians and bureaucrats through slush funds and illegal donations. This could help maintain the government's position of power, allowing them to secure contracts for major government projects and provide favourable treatment to the donor firm. Examples of this type of corruption were widespread in the years leading up to the 1997 financial crisis. Many of the firms that benefited from this relationship were too indebted, had poor corporate governance, and were inefficient. There was a huge inflow of capital and a bending of regulation in favour of these problematic firms. Hanbo Group, formerly South Korea's second-largest steel-maker, is a good example of this. In the 1990s the company paid for special arrangements with high-ranking politicians so that it could secure contracts for large government projects over its competitors. Hanbo went bankrupt in 1997 after defaulting on debt payments along with other governance issues. Numerous chaebol companies had similar private agreements with the government in this fashion. It would be most common in companies dealing with heavy industries or projects that involved government procurement and urban planning. In the past, most successful political elections were won with chaebol support. Each time a new administration or regime stepped in, it would gear its policy platform towards chaebol revitalization. This was under the claim that to be a competitive economy more power must be given to the chaebols. In recent years, the leading political parties of South Korea have reversed their pro-large corporate stance to one of economic diversification.


title: Chaebol

text: Different reforms have been proposed or enacted to deal with the influence, power, and corruption associated with the chaebols, though it has been questioned whether real reform is possible.


title: Chaebol

text: Under Kim Dae-Jung and in the wake of the 1997 Asian financial crisis, many reforms were made to the chaebols. Most of these changes pertained to corporate structure, transparency in financial reporting, cuts in government subsidies, corporate governance, and debt stabilization. In 1997, the IMF provided a bailout loan of $60 billion conditional on revision. Distressed financial institutions were to be closed down and those that were deemed viable were to be restructured and recapitalized by the levels it set forth. This affected the chaebol because it severely restricted its easy access to financing which led to over-leveraged balance sheets. Lenient accounting practices and disclosure rules were to be strengthened and standardized for international practice. Hence, transparency was increased to what would be expected from a public company. The chaebols agreed to be subject to independent auditors and were obligated to provide consolidated financial statements regularly.


title: Chaebol

text: Kim Dae-Jung enacted what is known as the "Five Principles of Corporate Governance". These were the enhancement of management transparency, strengthening owner-manager accountability, elimination of cross-debt guarantees among chaebol affiliates, improvement of capital structures, and consolidation of core business areas. In his plans, debt-to-equity ratios was to be below 200%. Chaebol subsidiaries that were debt-laden or on the verge of bankruptcy were instructed to be either liquidated, sold, or put up for merger. Each chaebol-holding group had to break up its subsidiaries and operations so that they were more manageable. By the end of 1997, each had an average of 26.8 subsidiaries. It was hoped that if there were fewer activities, the quality of the remaining businesses would see improvement. Many unrelated branches to their core competencies were swiftly shed. If any of the conglomerates failed to meet the conditions by the set deadlines, strict sanctions would be passed against them. During the 2008 financial crisis, many of these reforms ensured chaebols' quick recovery. Having had exposure to a massive recession before, they learned to cope better than those in foreign countries. With significantly healthier balance sheets and higher cash reserves, the chaebols were able to avoid any liquidity issues. Moreover, with fewer subsidiaries, they were less exposed to the full scope of the crisis and thus helped keep the Korean economy afloat.


title: Chaebol

text: President Roh Moo Hyun pushed for even more extensive reform. His administration passed stringent regulations on fraudulent accounting, stock manipulation, and irregular wealth succession. Chaebols were forced to improve objectivity on their board of directors. Rather than having the decision-makers be insiders, affiliates, or family members, chaebols were expected to hold representation that reflected the interests of investors, especially minority shareholders who gained a significant number of rights. As a result, it became easier for chaebols to raise capital through equity rather than riskier debt. This is because the new transparency laws and restructuring boosted investor confidence from abroad.


title: Chaebol

text: Formally, the Korea Fair Trade Commission announces a limited chaebol list every year by size of industrial assets (not including financial companies).


title: Chaebol

text: Like many other conglomerates across the world, Korean chaebols have a presence in popular media. There are a large number of K-dramas that feature chaebols and chaebol family members. Some of these shows include "A Business Proposal", "Coffee Prince", "What's Wrong with Secretary Kim", and "The Heirs". Many Korean dramas portray the lifestyles of chaebol family members in a comedic manner. Other dramas, however, portray them as evil and cunning including "Innocent Defendant", "Remember", and "Vincenzo", reflecting the huge income inequality and corruption in South Korea. In addition, many chaebol family members have taken to social media outlets like Instagram and Twitter, where they publish snippets of their personal life. Some chaebols also partake in popular social media trends like mukbangs, as is seen on the popular YouTube channel 햄연지 YONJIHAM. Some have suggested that these attempts at humanizing chaebols are purely financial strategies.


title: Alien vs. Predator (film)

text: Alien vs. Predator (stylized as AVP: Alien vs. Predator) is a 2004 science fiction action film written and directed by Paul W. S. Anderson, and starring Sanaa Lathan, Raoul Bova, Lance Henriksen, Ewen Bremner, Colin Salmon, and Tommy Flanagan. It is the first film installment of the "Alien vs. Predator" franchise, adapting a crossover bringing together the eponymous creatures of the "Alien" and "Predator" series, a concept which originated in a 1989 comic book written by Randy Stradley and Chris Warner. Anderson wrote the story, with the creators of the "Alien" franchise, Dan O'Bannon and Ronald Shusett receiving additional story credit due to the incorporation of elements from the "Alien" series, and Anderson and Shane Salerno adapted the story into a screenplay. Their writing was influenced by Aztec mythology, the comic book series, and the writings of Erich von Däniken. In the film, scientists are caught in the crossfire of an ancient battle between Aliens and Predators as they attempt to escape a bygone pyramid.


title: Alien vs. Predator (film)

text: "Alien vs. Predator" was theatrically released on 12 August 2004. It received generally negative reviews and grossed $177.4 million worldwide against a production budget of $60–70 million. A direct sequel, "", was released in 2007.


title: Alien vs. Predator (film)

text: In 2004, a Predator ship arrives on Earth and uses a heating device to melt a hole in Antarctic ice. Meanwhile, a satellite detects the heat bloom beneath Bouvetøya, an island about off the coast of Antarctica. Wealthy industrialist Charles Weyland discovers through thermal imaging that there is a pyramid buried beneath the ice. He assembles a team of experts to investigate, including archaeologists, linguists, mercenaries, and a mountaineering guide named Lex Woods. Terminally ill, Weyland desires to claim the discovery in his name.


title: Alien vs. Predator (film)

text: When the team arrives at the abandoned whaling station, they find a newly made tunnel running directly beneath the ice toward the pyramid. The team descends the tunnel and begins to explore the pyramid, soon finding evidence of an ancient civilization and what appears to be a sacrificial chamber filled with human skeletons that all have ruptured rib cages.


title: Alien vs. Predator (film)

text: Meanwhile, three Predators — Scar, Celtic, and Chopper — arrive and kill the remaining team members on the surface. They make their way down to the pyramid and arrive just as the team unwittingly activates the structure and is trapped within it. The Xenomorph Queen awakens from cryogenic stasis and begins to produce eggs. When the eggs hatch, several facehuggers attach themselves to humans trapped in the sacrificial chamber. Chestbursters emerge from the humans and quickly grow into adult Xenomorphs. The humans take possession of the Predator's blasters, and conflict erupts between the Predators, Xenomorphs, and humans. Celtic and Chopper are killed by a Xenomorph, and Weyland buys Lex and Sebastian De Rosa enough time to escape from Scar, giving his life in the process. The two witness Scar kill a facehugger and a Xenomorph before unmasking and marking himself with the acidic blood of the facehugger. After Lex and Sebastian leave, another facehugger attacks Scar.


title: Alien vs. Predator (film)

text: Through translation of the pyramid's hieroglyphs, Lex and Sebastian learn that the Predators have been visiting Earth for thousands of years. They taught the early human civilization how to build pyramids and were worshipped as gods. Every 100 years, they visit Earth to take part in a rite of passage by which several humans sacrifice themselves as hosts for the Xenomorphs, creating the "ultimate prey" for the Predators to hunt. As a fail-safe, if overwhelmed, the Predators would activate a self-destruct device to eliminate the Xenomorphs. They deduce that the Predators lured them into the pyramid to use as a sacrifice.


title: Alien vs. Predator (film)

text: Lex and Sebastian decide that the Predators must be allowed to succeed so that the Xenomorphs do not escape to the surface. Sebastian is captured by a Xenomorph, and Lex returns the blaster to Scar. They are attacked by a Xenomorph, and Lex manages to kill it. Impressed, Scar uses parts of a dead Xenomorph to fashion weapons for Lex, and the two form an alliance. Lex finds Sebastian, who has become the host of a Xenomorph. She mercy kills him, but the Xenomorph Queen is freed from her restraints and, along with the other Xenomorphs, begins pursuing Lex and Scar. Scar detaches and uses a bomb in his wrist module to destroy the pyramid and the remaining Xenomorphs and eggs. Lex and Scar reach the surface, and Scar uses acidic Xenomorph blood to mark Lex with the Xenomorph hunter symbol. However, the Xenomorph Queen reappears and attacks. They defeat the Queen by hooking her chains to a water tank and pushing her over a cliff, so that she sinks to the ocean floor under the tank's weight. Scar is fatally wounded.


title: Alien vs. Predator (film)

text: A Predator spaceship appears, and its crew retrieves its fallen comrade. An elder Predator presents Lex with a spear as a gift as the spaceship departs. Lex walks over to a snowcat and leaves the area. On the Predator spaceship, Scar's body lies at rest when a Predalien chestburster erupts from his chest.


title: Alien vs. Predator (film)

text: Before 20th Century Fox gave "Alien vs. Predator" the greenlight, "Aliens" writer/director James Cameron had been working on a story for a fifth "Alien" film. "Alien" director Ridley Scott had talked with Cameron, stating "I think it would be a lot of fun, but the most important thing is to get the story right." In a 2002 interview, Scott's concept for a story was "to go back to where the alien creatures were first found and explain how they were created"; this project eventually became Scott's film "Prometheus" (2012). On learning that Fox intended to pursue "Alien vs. Predator", Cameron believed the film would "kill the validity of the franchise" and ceased work on his story, "To me, that was "Frankenstein Meets Werewolf". It was Universal just taking their assets and starting to play them off against each other...Milking it." After viewing "Alien vs. Predator", Cameron remarked that "it was actually pretty good. I think of the five "Alien" films, I'd rate it third. I actually liked it. I actually liked it a lot." Conversely, Ridley Scott had no interest in the "Alien vs. Predator" films. When asked in May 2012 if he had watched them, Scott laughed, "No. I couldn't do that. I couldn't quite take that step." Director Neill Blomkamp would eventually go on to pitch his sequel to "Aliens". However, Scott stated in 2017 that the project has been cancelled.


title: Alien vs. Predator (film)

text: The concept of "Alien vs. Predator" originated from the "Aliens versus Predator" comic book in 1989 and subsequent novelisations and novels. It was also hinted at when an Alien skull appeared in a trophy case aboard the Predator ship in "Predator 2". Shortly after the release of "Predator 2", "Predator" co-writer Jim Thomas discussed the possibilities of a "Predator" franchise and commented on the prospect of a crossover film, stating, "I think Predator vs. Alien is a good idea that will probably never happen". Screenwriter Peter Briggs created the original spec screenplay in 1990–1991, which was based on the first comic series. In 1991, he successfully pitched the concept to 20th Century Fox, who owned the film franchises, although the company did not move forward with the project until 2002, although a video game produced by Capcom as a tie-in to the unmade film saw independent release in 1994. The project was delayed chiefly because the studio was working on "Alien Resurrection". A draft penned by James DeMonaco and Kevin Fox described as "pretty much word-for-word like the Dark Horse comic book" was rejected by producer John Davis, who hoped to give the film an original approach by setting it on Earth.


title: Alien vs. Predator (film)

text: As there were six producers between the film franchises, "Predator" producer John Davis had difficulty securing the rights as the producers were worried about a film featuring the two creatures. Paul W. S. Anderson pitched Davis a story he worked on for eight years, adapting the Machiko Noguchi series, and showed him concept art created by Randy Bowen. Impressed with Anderson's idea, Davis thought the story was like "Jaws" in that it "just drew you in, it drew you in". Anderson started to work on the film after completing the script for "", with Shane Salerno co-writing. Salerno spent six months writing the shooting script, finished its development, and stayed on for revisions throughout the film's production. Dan O'Bannon and Ronald Shusett received story credit on the film based on elements from their work on the original "Alien".


title: Alien vs. Predator (film)

text: Early reports claimed the story was about humans who tried to lure Predators with Alien eggs, although the idea was scrapped. Influenced by the work of Erich von Däniken, Anderson researched von Däniken's theories on how he believed early civilizations were able to construct massive pyramids with the help of aliens, an idea long debunked and based on misinterpretations of Aztec mythology. Anderson wove these ideas into "Alien vs. Predator", describing a scenario in which Predators taught ancient humans to build pyramids and used Earth for rite of passage rituals every 100 years in which they would hunt Aliens. To explain how these ancient civilisations "disappeared without a trace", Anderson came up with the idea that the Predators, if overwhelmed by the Aliens, would use their self-destruct weapons to kill everything in the area. H. P. Lovecraft's novella "At the Mountains of Madness" (1931) served as an inspiration for the film, and several elements of the "Aliens vs. Predator" comic series were included. Anderson's initial script called for five Predators to appear in the film, although the number was later reduced to three.


title: Alien vs. Predator (film)

text: As "Alien vs. Predator" was intended to be a sequel to the "Predator" films and prequel to the "Alien" series, Anderson was cautious of contradicting continuity in the franchises. He chose to set the film on the remote Norwegian Antarctic island of Bouvet commenting, "It's definitely the most hostile environment on Earth and probably the closest to an Alien surface you can get." Anderson thought that setting the film in an urban environment like New York City would break continuity with the "Alien" series as the protagonist, Ellen Ripley, had no knowledge the creatures existed. "You can't have an Alien running around the city now, because it would've been written up and everyone will know about it. So there's nothing in this movie that contradicts anything that already exists."


title: Alien vs. Predator (film)

text: The first actor to be cast for "Alien vs. Predator" was Lance Henriksen, who played the character Bishop in "Aliens" and "Alien 3". Although the "Alien" films are set hundreds of years in the future, Anderson wanted to keep continuity with the series by including a familiar actor. Henriksen plays billionaire and self-taught-engineer Charles Bishop Weyland, a character that ties in with the Weyland-Yutani Corporation as the original founder and CEO of Weyland Industries. According to Anderson, Weyland becomes known for the discovery of the pyramid, and as a result the Weyland-Yutani Corporation models the Bishop android in the "Alien" films after him; "when the Bishop android is created in 150 years time, it's created with the face of the creator. It's kind of like Microsoft building an android in 100 years time that has the face of Bill Gates."


title: Alien vs. Predator (film)

text: Anderson opted for a European cast including Italian actor Raoul Bova, Ewen Bremner from Scotland, and English actor Colin Salmon. Producer Davis said, "There's a truly international flavor to the cast, and gives the film a lot of character." Several hundred actresses attended the auditions to be cast as the film's heroine Alexa Woods, loosely based on the comic and novel protagonist Machiko Noguchi. Sanaa Lathan was selected, and one week later she flew to Prague to begin filming. The filmmakers knew there would be comparisons to "Alien" heroine Ellen Ripley and did not want a clone of the character, but wanted to make her similar while adding something different.


title: Alien vs. Predator (film)

text: Anderson reported in an interview that California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger was willing to reprise his role as Major Alan "Dutch" Schaeffer from "Predator" in a short cameo appearance if he lost the recall election on condition that the filming should take place at his residence. Schwarzenegger, however, won the election with 48.58% of the votes and was unavailable to participate in "Alien vs. Predator". Actress Sigourney Weaver, who starred as Ellen Ripley in the "Alien" series, said she was happy not to be in the film, as a possible crossover was "the reason I wanted my character to die in the first place", and thought the concept "sounded awful".


title: Alien vs. Predator (film)

text: Production began in late 2003 at Barrandov Studios in Prague, Czech Republic, where most of the filming took place. Production designer Richard Bridgland was in charge of sets, props and vehicles, based on early concept art Anderson had created to give a broad direction of how things would look. 25 to 30 life-sized sets were constructed at Barrandov Studios, many of which were interiors of the pyramid. The pyramid's carvings, sculptures, and hieroglyphs were influenced by Egyptian, Cambodian, and Aztec civilisations, while the regular shifting of the pyramid's rooms was meant to evoke a sense of claustrophobia similar to the original "Alien" film. According to Anderson, if he was to build the sets in Los Angeles they would have cost $20 million. However, in Prague they cost $2 million, an important factor when the film's budget was less than $50 million.


title: Alien vs. Predator (film)

text: Third scale miniatures several meters in height were created to give the film the effect of realism, rather than relying on computer generated imagery (CGI). For the whaling station miniatures and life-sized sets, over 700 bags of artificial snow were used (roughly 15–20 tons). A 4.5-meter miniature of an icebreaker with working lights and a mechanical moving radar was created, costing almost $37,000 and taking 10 weeks to create. Visual effects producer Arthur Windus, claimed miniatures were beneficial in the filming process: "With computer graphics, you need to spend a lot of time making it real. With a miniature, you shoot it and its there." A scale 25-meter miniature of the whaling station was created in several months. It was designed so the model could be collapsed and then reconstructed, which proved beneficial for a six-second shot which required a re-shoot.


title: Alien vs. Predator (film)

text: Special effects company Amalgamated Dynamics Incorporated (ADI) was hired for the film, having previously worked on "Alien 3" and "Alien Resurrection". Visual special effects producers Arthur Windus and John Bruno were in charge of the project, which contained 400 effects shots. ADI founders Alec Gillis, Tom Woodruff Jr. and members of their company, began designing costumes, miniatures and effects in June 2003. For five months the creatures were redesigned, the Predators wrist blades being extended roughly four times longer than those in the "Predator" films, and a larger mechanical plasma caster was created for the Scar Predator.


title: Alien vs. Predator (film)

text: The basic shape of the Predator mask was kept, although technical details were added and each Predator was given a unique mask to distinguish them from each other. These masks were created using clay, which was used to form moulds to create fiberglass copies. These copies were painted to give a weathered look, which Woodruff claims "is what the Predator is all about". A hydraulic Alien puppet was created so ADI would be able to make movements faster and give the Alien a "slimline and skeletal" appearance, rather than using an actor in a suit. The puppet required six people to run it; one for the head and body, two for the arms, and a sixth to make sure the signals were reaching the computer. Movements were recorded in the computer so that puppeteers would be able to repeat moves that Anderson liked. The puppet was used in six shots, including the fight scene with the Predator which took one month to film.


title: Alien vs. Predator (film)

text: The crew tried to keep CGI use to a minimum, as Anderson said people in suits and puppets are scarier than CGI monsters as they are "there in the frame". Roughly 70% of scenes were created using suits, puppets, and miniatures. The Alien queen was filmed using three variations: a 4.8-meter practical version, a 1.2-meter puppet, and a computer-generated version. The practical version required 12 puppeteers to operate, and CGI tails were added to the Aliens and the queen as they were difficult to animate using puppetry. The queen alien's inner-mouth was automated though, and was powered by a system of hydraulics. Anderson praised "Alien" director Ridley Scott's and "Predator" director John McTiernan's abilities at building suspense by not showing the creatures until late in the film, something Anderson wanted to accomplish with "Alien vs. Predator". "Yes, we make you wait 45 minutes, but once it goes off, from there until the end of the movie, it's fucking relentless".


title: Alien vs. Predator (film)

text: Austrian composer Harald Kloser was hired to create the film's score. After completing the score for "The Day After Tomorrow", Kloser was chosen by Anderson as he is a fan of the franchises. It was recorded in London, and was primarily orchestral as Anderson commented, "this is a terrifying movie and it needs a terrifying, classic movie score to go with it; at the same time it's got huge action so it needs that kind of proper orchestral support."


title: Alien vs. Predator (film)

text: The score album was released on iTunes on 9 August 2004, and on CD on 31 August 2004 and received mixed reviews. James Christopher Monger of Allmusic thought Kloser introduced electronic elements well, and called "Alien vs. Predator Main Theme a particularly striking and serves as a continuous creative source for the composer to dip his baton in." Mike Brennan of Soundtrack, however, said it "lacks the ingenuity of the previous trilogy ("Alien") and the "Predator" scores, which all shared a strong sense of rhythm in place of thematic content. Kloser throws in some interesting percussion cues ("Antarctica" and "Down the Tunnel"), but more as a sound effect than a consistent motif." John Fallon of JoBlo.com compared it to character development in the film, "too generic to completely engage or leave a permanent impression."


title: Alien vs. Predator (film)

text: "Alien vs. Predator" was released on VHS, DVD, and PSP UMD Movies in North America on 25 January 2005. The DVD contained two audio commentaries. The first featured Paul W. S. Anderson, Lance Henriksen, and Sanaa Lathan, while the second included special effects supervisor John Bruno and ADI founders Alec Gillis and Tom Woodruff. A 25-minute "Making of" featurette and a Dark Horse "AVP" comic cover gallery were included in the special features along with three deleted scenes from the film. On release, "Alien vs. Predator" debuted at number 1 on the Top DVD Sales and Top Video Rental charts in North America.


title: Alien vs. Predator (film)

text: A two-disc "Extreme Edition" was released on 7 March 2005, featuring behind the scenes footage of the conception, pre-production, production, post-production, and licensing of the film. An "Unrated Edition" was released on 22 November 2005, containing the same special features as the Extreme Edition as well as an extra eight minutes of footage in the film. John J. Puccio of DVD Town remarked that the extra footage contained "a few more shots of blood, gore, guts, and slime to spice things up...and tiny bits of connecting matter to help us follow the story line better, but none of it amounts to much."


title: Alien vs. Predator (film)

text: "Alien vs. Predator" was released in North America on 13 August 2004 in 3,395 theatres. The film grossed $38.2 million over its opening weekend for an average of $11,278 per theatre, and was number one at the box office. The film spent 16 weeks in cinemas and made $80,282,231 in North America. It grossed $9 million in the United Kingdom, $16 million in Japan, and $8 million in Germany and totalled $97,144,859 at the international box office. This brought the film's worldwide gross to $177,427,090, making it the second highest-grossing film in either the "Predator" or "Alien" franchises, behind "Prometheus", which grossed over $403 million worldwide. It ranks third behind "Aliens" and "Prometheus" at the domestic box office.


title: Alien vs. Predator (film)

text: On Metacritic the film has a weighted average score of 29 out of 100, based on 21 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B" on an A+ to F scale.


title: Alien vs. Predator (film)

text: Rick Kisonak of "Film Threat" praised the film stating, "For a big dumb production about a movie monster smackdown, "Alien vs. Predator" is a surprisingly good time". Ian Grey of the "Orlando Weekly" felt, "Anderson clearly relished making this wonderful, utterly silly film; his heart shows in every drip of slime." Staci Layne Wilson of Horror.com called it "a pretty movie to look at with its grandiose sets and top notch creature FX, but it's a lot like Anderson's previous works in that it's all facade and no foundation." Gary Dowell of "The Dallas Morning News" called the film, "a transparent attempt to jumpstart two run-down franchises". Ed Halter of "The Village Voice" described the film's lighting for fight sequences as, "black-on-black-in-blackness", while Ty Burr of "The Boston Globe" felt the lighting "left the audience in the dark".


title: Alien vs. Predator (film)

text: A fourth "Predator" film, titled "The Predator", was released in September 2018, featuring Lex Wood's Xenomorph-bone spear from the conclusion of "Alien vs. Predator" on display at Project Stargazer.


title: Alien vs. Predator (film)

text: Zen Studios developed a virtual pinball table based on the premise and setting (though not the plot) of the film, releasing it on 26 April 2016 as an add-on pack for "Zen Pinball 2", "Pinball FX 2" and "Pinball FX 3". Instead of providing a condensed version of the events of the film, the "Alien vs. Predator" pinball table features an original storyline that focuses on a Predator's journey to become a seasoned warrior and Alien hunter. The table's score display plays clips from the film itself, while Woods and De Rosa are its announcers, observing and commenting on the Predator's actions with mostly newly recorded voice lines.


title: SoftBank Group

text: The company is known for the leadership of its controversial founder and largest shareholder Masayoshi Son. It operates in broadband, fixed-line telecommunications, e-commerce, information technology, finance, media and marketing, and other areas. SoftBank Corporation, its spun-out affiliate and former flagship business, is the third-largest wireless carrier in Japan, with 45.621 million subscribers as of March 2021.


title: SoftBank Group

text: SoftBank was ranked in the 2017 Forbes Global 2000 list as the 36th largest public company in the world and the second-largest publicly traded company in Japan after Toyota.


title: SoftBank Group

text: The logo of SoftBank is based on the flag of the Kaientai, a naval trading company founded in 1865, near the end of the Tokugawa shogunate, by Sakamoto Ryōma.


title: SoftBank Group

text: Although SoftBank does not affiliate itself to any traditional keiretsu, it has close ties with Mizuho Financial Group, its primary lender.


title: SoftBank Group

text: SoftBank was founded in September 1981 as a SOFTBANK Corp by then-24-year-old Masayoshi Son, initially as a software distributor. The company entered the publishing business in May 1982 with the launches of the Oh! PC and Oh! MZ magazines, about NEC and Sharp computers respectively. Oh!PC had a circulation of 140,000 copies by 1989. It would go on to become Japan's largest publisher of computer and technology magazines and trade shows.


title: SoftBank Group

text: In 1994, the company went public, valued at $3 billion. In September 1995, SoftBank agreed to purchase US-based Ziff Davis publishing for $2.1 billion.


title: SoftBank Group

text: In the 1990s, Son made large investments in internet services and the so-called new economy in general. SoftBank bought COMDEX from The Interface Group on 1 April 1995 for $800 million and ZDI on 29 February 1996. SoftBank sold COMDEX to Key3Media, a spin-off of Ziff Davis, in 2001. In 1996, SoftBank formed a joint venture with American internet company Yahoo!, creating Yahoo! Japan, which would become a dominant site in the country.


title: SoftBank Group

text: In another highly publicized investment, SoftBank bought 80% of memory manufacturers Kingston Technology in 1996. When the owners-founders (John Tu and David Sun) announced plans to distribute $100,000,000 of the $1.5B windfall to Kingston employees, it created a very high profile media stir that lasted well thru the 1996 Christmas season; it was on all US networks, as well as international media. A few years later, in 1999, after the market for memory softened substantially, SoftBank sold the company back at a loss to the original owners for about a third of the original price.


title: SoftBank Group

text: In October 1999, SoftBank became a holding company. In 2000, SoftBank made its most successful investment$20 million to a then-fledgling Chinese Internet venture called Alibaba. This investment turned into $60 billion when Alibaba went public in September 2014.


title: SoftBank Group

text: In February 2000, SoftBank Ventures Asia was founded under the leadership of Masayoshi Son to focus on investment in Korean-based Internet companies.


title: SoftBank Group

text: On 28 January 2005, SoftBank became the owner of the Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks, a Nippon Professional Baseball team. On 17 March 2006, SoftBank announced its agreement to buy Vodafone Japan, giving it a stake in Japan's $78 billion mobile markets. In April 2006, SoftBank purchased a 23% stake in Betfair, an Internet betting exchange. In August 2006, SoftBank sold all its shares of SBI Group to a subsidiary of SBI's holding company, making SBI independent. On 1 October 2006, Vodafone Japan changed its corporate name and service brand name to "SoftBank Mobile" and "SoftBank" respectively.


title: SoftBank Group

text: On 28 January 2008, it was announced that SoftBank and Tiffany & Co. collaborated in making a limited 10 model-only phone. This phone contains more than 400 platinum diamonds, totaling more than 20 carats. The cost is said to be more than 100,000,000 yen.


title: SoftBank Group

text: On 3 February 2010, SoftBank acquired 13.7% in Ustream. On 1 October 2010, Ayumi Hamasaki became the commercial spokesperson.


title: SoftBank Group

text: On 3 October 2012, the takeover of competitor eAccess was announced. On 1 July 2013, SoftBank announced that Willcom was a wholly-owned subsidiary, after the termination of rehabilitation proceedings. eAccess was merged with Willcom, which resulted in a new subsidiary and brand from Yahoo! Japan, Ymobile Corporation.


title: SoftBank Group

text: On 15 October 2012, SoftBank announced plans to take control of American Sprint Nextel by purchasing a 70% stake for $20 billion. On 6 July 2013, the United States Federal Communications Commission approved SoftBank's acquisition for $22.2 billion for a 78% ownership interest in Sprint. On 6 August 2013, SoftBank bought 2% more shares of Sprint Corporation, increasing its ownership stake to 80%.


title: SoftBank Group

text: In October 2013, SoftBank acquired a 51% stake in Supercell for a reported $2.1 billion. Later on 25 October 2014, they invested $210 million in OlaCabs, $627 million in Snapdeal with a 30% stake in the company on 28 October 2014, and a $100 million investment in Housing.com for a 30% stake in November 2014.


title: SoftBank Group

text: In 2013, the company bought a controlling stake in French company Aldebaran Robotics, which was rebranded SoftBank Robotics. In 2014, teams from both companies co-designed Pepper, a humanoid robot. In 2015, SoftBank increased its stake to 95%.


title: SoftBank Group

text: In 2015, SoftBank acquired DramaFever. In May 2015, Masayoshi Son said he would appoint Nikesh Arora, a former Google executive, as Representative Director and President of SoftBank. Arora had been heading SoftBank's investment arm. On 1 June 2015, SoftBank acquired an additional 22.7% stake in Supercell, increasing its total stake to 73.2% and becoming the sole external shareholder of the company. In June 2015, SoftBank announced it would invest US$1 billion in the Korean e-commerce website Coupang as part of its overseas expansion plans.


title: SoftBank Group

text: In July 2015, SoftBank announced the renaming of the company from SoftBank Corp to SoftBank Group Corp. Meanwhile, SoftBank Mobile was renamed to SoftBank Corp, the now-former name of the company as a whole. On 16 February 2016, SoftBank announced they would repurchase a record 14.2% of shares, valued at $4.4bn, to boost investor confidence. On 31 March 2016, they announced they would sell shares worth $7.9 billion of their stake in Alibaba Group. On 21 June 2016, SoftBank sold its 84% stake in Supercell for a reported US$7.3 billion to Tencent. On 3 June 2016, Softbank agreed to sell most of its stake in GungHo Online Entertainment (approximately 23.47%) for about $685 million, ending Softbank's majority ownership. The offer was completed by 22 June.


title: SoftBank Group

text: In June 2016, Nikesh Arora stepped down amidst pressure from investors. Board member Ron Fisher and Baer Capital Partners founder Alok Sama undertook Arora's overseas investment duties. One month later, Son announced the company's largest deal ever to buy British chip designer ARM Holdings for more than US$32 billion. This acquisition was completed on 5 September 2016.


title: SoftBank Group

text: On 6 December 2016, after meeting with US President-elect Donald Trump, chief executive Masayoshi Son announced SoftBank would be investing US$50 billion in the United States toward businesses creating 50,000 new jobs.


title: SoftBank Group

text: On 30 January 2017, the "Wall Street Journal" wrote that SoftBank Group was "weighing an investment of well over $1 billion in shared-office space company WeWork, in what could be among the first deals from its new $100 billion technology fund." On 20 March, SoftBank bought a $300m stake in WeWork. On 14 February 2017, SoftBank Group agreed to buy Fortress Investment Group LLC for $3.3 billion. In February 2017, it was announced that Social Finance Inc. was close to raising $500 million from an investor group led by Silver Lake, including Softbank. On 28 March 2017, the "Wall Street Journal" reported that SoftBank Group Corporation had approached Didi Chuxing Technology Co. about investing $6 billion to help the ride-hailing firm expand in self-driving car technologies, with the bulk of the money to come from SoftBank's planned $100 billion Vision Fund.


title: SoftBank Group

text: On 18 May 2017, it was reported that Softbank had completed its single largest investment in India to date, investing $1.4 billion in Paytm. At the time, Softbank was also working on a takeover of Flipkart's Snapdeal. On 10 August 2017, Softbank invested $2.5 billion in Flipkart.


title: SoftBank Group

text: On 27 May 2017, Softbank and the Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia (PIF), the kingdom's main sovereign wealth fund, partnered to create the Softbank Vision Fund, the world's largest private equity fund with a capital of $93 billion. Softbank Group contributed $28 billion to the investment fund, of which $8.2 billion came from the sale of approximately 25% of British multinational Arm Holdings shares. Saudi Arabia is the principal investor in the fund, its Public Investment Fund (PIF) agreed to inject $45 billion into the Vision Fund over 5 years, becoming its largest investor. Other investors include Apple, Qualcomm, ARM, Foxconn, Sharp, Larry Ellison and Mubadala. The latter agreed to invest $15 billion dollars in the fund, targeting artificial intelligence, communications infrastructure, financial technology, consumer internet, mobile computing and robotics. Through Softbank Vision Fund, CEO Masayoshi Son explained his intent to invest in all companies developing technologies emphasizing global artificial intelligence, including sectors such as finance or transportation. In July 2019, SoftBank announced creating of a "Vision Fund 2", excluding participation from the Saudi Arabia government and including investors Apple, Foxconn, Microsoft and others. The fund is reported to focus on AI-based technology and invest approximately $108 billion, including $38 billion of its own funds. In February 2020, however, a report from "Wall Street Journal" stated the fund would only up with less than half of that capital.


title: SoftBank Group

text: On 8 June 2017, Alphabet Inc. announced the sale of Boston Dynamics (robotics companies whose products include BigDog) to SoftBank Group for an undisclosed sum. On 25 August 2017, SoftBank finalized a $4.4 billion investment in WeWork. On 24 October 2017, Son announced the group would collaborate with Saudi Arabia to develop Neom, the new high-tech business and industrial city of the Saudi Kingdom. On 14 November 2017, Softbank agreed to invest $10 billion into Uber. On 29 December 2017, it was reported that a SoftBank-led consortium had invested $9 billion into Uber. The deal, to close in January 2018, would leave SoftBank as Uber's biggest shareholder, with a 15 percent stake. The deal was secured after Uber shareholders voted to "sell their shares to the Japanese conglomerate at a discounted price." Beyond SoftBank, consortium members included Dragoneer, Tencent, TPG and Sequoia.


title: SoftBank Group

text: On 14 January 2018, Softbank's Vision Fund announced to invest $560 million in the German used-car sales portal Auto1. On 1 March 2018, Softbank's Vision Fund led a $535 million investment in DoorDash. In May 2018, CEO Masayoshi Son revealed during an earnings presentation that Walmart had reached a deal to buy Flipkart. On 27 September 2018, Softbank announced the investment of $400 Million in Home-Selling Startup Opendoor.


title: SoftBank Group

text: In September 2018, Saudi government officials announced that a planned $200 billion project with SoftBank Group to build the world's biggest solar-power-generation project would be put on hold. In November 2018, SoftBank announced it would make an IPO with the cost of share of $13.22 (which is 1,500 yen). The offer of the shares was going to last for a month. Regarding the number of shares, the total value of SoftBank will reach $21.15 billion, which would be the second-largest IPO ever made.


title: SoftBank Group

text: In December 2018, SoftBank invested in ParkJockey. The startup attempts to monetize parking lots. After the investment round, general valuation of the ParkJourney reached $1 billion.


title: SoftBank Group

text: In December 2018, SoftBank announced its intention to invest $1 billion on ride-hailing startup Grab. Some sources said that the total amount of investment could reach $1.5 billion.


title: SoftBank Group

text: In December 2019, Softbank sold its interest in dog-walking startup Wag at a loss. Tadashi Yanai, Fast Retailing's CEO and Japan's richest man at the time, left the board after 18 years.


title: SoftBank Group

text: In January 2020, multiple Softbank-funded startups started cutting their staff, including Getaround, Oyo, Rappi, Katerra and Zume. In February 2020, Elliott Management, an activist hedge fund, bought a $2.5 billion stake in Softbank and pushed for restructuring and more transparency, especially regarding its Vision Fund. Consequently, plans for a second Vision Fund were pushed back.


title: SoftBank Group

text: In November 2019, it was announced that Line Corp. and Z Holdings were going to be a new subsidiary under Naver Corporation and SoftBank Group, their respective owners. The closing was delayed until March 2021 due to COVID-19.


title: SoftBank Group

text: In March 2020, SoftBank announced that it was launching an emergency ¥4.5tn ($41bn) asset sale to fund a share buyback and debt reduction. The effort was initiated by Son in order to stem a collapse in the company’s share price due to the pandemic, "This programme will be the largest share buyback and will result in the largest increase in cash balance in the history of SBG [SoftBank Group], reflecting the firm and unwavering confidence we have in our business.". After the programme was unveiled, Softbank share price rose almost 19%. The program included a plan to repurchase ¥2tn of its shares in addition to the ¥500bn buyback it promised 10 days prior. Combined, SoftBank would be repurchasing 45% of its stock.


title: SoftBank Group

text: On 1 April 2020, Sprint completed its merger with T-Mobile US, which was majority-owned by Deutsche Telekom, leaving T-Mobile the parent company. The merger also led to Softbank holding 24% of the new T-Mobile's shares, while 43% of shares are held by Deutsche Telekom. The remaining 33% will be held by others. In May 2020, Alibaba's co-founder and former CEO Jack Ma resigned from the board.


title: SoftBank Group

text: In July 2020, SoftBank announced that it is considering to sell or IPO British chip designer Arm Holdings, which has been in a feud with the Chinese over control of its local subsidiary, but it did not have the majority ownership due to a decision made by Softbank to sell off the stake to the local partner. For Q2 of 2020, the company revenues were $12 billion. The firm announced that it would be arranging a new fund worth $555 million. The fund will be used to invest in various companies, including Amazon, Apple and Facebook.


title: SoftBank Group

text: In September 2020, SoftBank Vision Fund 2 led a $100 million Series C round in Biofourmis. Also in September 2020, Softbank was identified as the Nasdaq whale where it bought stock options valued in the billions, betting on higher prices for the biggest technology companies. That month SoftBank sold Brightstar Corporation to Brightstar Capital Partners for an undisclosed amount.


title: SoftBank Group

text: American chip designing company Nvidia announced plans on 13 September 2020 to acquire ARM from SoftBank, pending regulatory approval, for a value of US $40 billion in stock and cash, became the largest semiconductor acquisition to date. SoftBank Group is to retain a 10% share in the company while ARM maintains its headquarters in Cambridge.


title: SoftBank Group

text: In December 2020, Hyundai Motor Group acquired an 80% stake of Boston Dynamics from SoftBank for approximately $880 million. SoftBank retains about 20% through an affiliate.


title: SoftBank Group

text: In January 2021, SoftBank sold $2 billion in Uber Technologies shares through affiliate firm SB Cayman.


title: SoftBank Group

text: In March 2021, SoftBank made a record $36.99 billion profit from its Vision Fund unit and investment gains via the public market debut of Coupang. SoftBank Group's net profit was $45.88 billion (¥4.99 trillion). It was the largest recorded annual profit by a Japanese company in history. The same month, Softbank's Vision Fund 2 announced investment in the eToro SPAC merger PIPE funding of $650 million.


title: SoftBank Group

text: In April 2021 Softbank announced plans to acquire a 40% stake in AutoStore for $2.8 billion and in July 2021 it announced it would invest $870 million in the Korean hotel booking platform Yanolja.


title: SoftBank Group

text: In May 2021, Softbank stated it would sell SB Energy India, to Adani Green Energy, valuing the unit at $3.5 billion. The sale is speculated to mark a shift in the company's trajectory, moving away from investments in solar energy towards companies dealing with artificial intelligence. Later that month, Bloomberg reported, Vision Fund could go public via a $300 million SPAC in 2021, listing in Amsterdam.


title: SoftBank Group

text: In July 2021, Softbank announced that it would acquire the Yahoo Japan brand from Verizon for $1.6 billion.


title: SoftBank Group

text: In August 2021, Son said he would begin to make personal investments alongside Softbank Group's Vision Fund 2.


title: SoftBank Group

text: In September 2021, Softbank agreed to sell most of its shares in T-Mobile US to Deutsche Telekom in exchange for a 4.5% stake in the latter.


title: SoftBank Group

text: In August 2022, Softbank said that it sold its entire Uber holdings in April–July 2022. It was also reported that Softbank exited Opendoor in that quarter.


title: SoftBank Group

text: SoftBank's corporate profile includes various other companies such as Japanese broadband company SoftBank BB, data center company IDC Frontier, gaming company GungHo Online Entertainment, and the publishing company SB Creative. SBI Group is a Japanese financial services company that began in 1999 as a branch of SoftBank. Ymobile Corporation is another telecommunications subsidiary of SoftBank, established in 2014. In 2010, SoftBank founded Wireless City Planning (WCP), a subsidiary that planned the development of TD-LTE networks throughout Japan. SoftBank also operates SoftBank Capital, a US-based venture capital company. SoftBank owns the Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks professional baseball team. SoftBank also operates in the eco-power industry through its SB Energy subsidiary.


title: SoftBank Group

text: It has various partnerships in Japanese subsidiaries of foreign companies such as Yahoo! (which has resulted in Yahoo! Japan), E-Trade, Ustream.tv, EF Education First and Morningstar. It also has stakes in Alibaba Group and Sprint Corporation.


title: SoftBank Group

text: Other holdings include , , Arm Holdings, Fortress Investment Group, Boston Dynamics, T-Mobile US (3.3%), Alibaba (29.5%), Yahoo Japan (48.17%), Brightstar (87.1%), Uber (15%), Didi Chuxing (c. 20%), Ola (c. 30%), Renren (42.9%), InMobi (45%), Hike (25.8%), Snapdeal (c. 30%), Fanatics (c. 22%), Improbable Worlds (c. 50%), Paytm (c. 20%), OYO (42%), Ping An Insurance (7.41%), Slack Technologies (c. 5%), WeWork (c. 80%), ZhongAn Online P&C Insurance (5%), Compass (c. 22%), AUTO1 Group (c. 20%), Wag (45%), Katerra (c. 28%), Cruise Automation (c. 19.6%), ParkJockey, Tokopedia (Indonesia), and many more companies.


title: SoftBank Group

text: is SoftBank's telecommunications subsidiary, providing both mobile and fixed-line services. It was called SoftBank Mobile until July 2015, when the Group merged SoftBank BB Corp., SoftBank Telecom Corp. and Ymobile Corporation to reflect its fixed-line and ISP operations.


title: SoftBank Group

text: SoftBank's mobile communications arm began with the formation of Japan Telecom in 1984. The Digital Phone Group (デジタルホン, DPG, three local companies) mobile phone division was formed in 1994, and J-PHONE Co., Ltd. (J-フォン) was formed in 1999 by the DGP/ Digital TU-KA Group merger (DTG, six local companies, not to be confused with TU-KA). Japan Telecom owned a stake of 45.1%.


title: SoftBank Group

text: J-PHONE grew steadily for a decade by introducing new services and enhancements such as SkyWalker for PDC, SkyMelody ringtone download, the Sha-Mail picture mail introduced following camera phones developed by SHARP, the mobile multimedia data service J-Sky modeled after NTT DoCoMo's i-mode, and advanced Java services based on JSCL, modeled after NTT DoCoMo's DoJa based i-appli.


title: SoftBank Group

text: In October 2001, the British mobile phone group Vodafone increased its share to 66.7% of Japan Telecom and 69.7% of J-Phone. On 1 October 2003, the company's name and the service brand changed to Vodafone, while the division was called Vodafone K.K. or Vodafone Japan.


title: SoftBank Group

text: However, in January 2005, Vodafone Japan lost 58,700 customers and in February 2005 lost 53,200 customers, while competitors NTT DoCoMo gained 184,400 customers, while Au by KDDI gained 163,700, and Willcom gained 35,000. While as of February 2005, DoCoMo's FOMA 3G service had attracted 10 million subscribers and KDDI's 3G service had attracted over 17 million subscribers, Vodafone's 3G service only attracted 527,300 subscribers. Vodafone 3G failed to attract subscribers because Vodafone reduced investments in 3G services in Japan in 2002/3; handsets did not fully match the needs and preferences of Japanese customers. At the end of February 2005, Vodafone Japan had 15.1 million customers. By the end of October 2005, the number of subscribers had fallen below 15M. During the same period, NTT DoCoMo gained 1.65 million customers, and KDDI/AU gained 1.82 million customers. Vodafone-Japan had only 4.8% of Japan's 3G market.


title: SoftBank Group

text: Vodafone changed the name of its multimedia data services from J-Sky to Vodafone live! and used J-Sky's principles, technologies, and business models to introduce the WAP-based Vodafone live! in Vodafone's other markets. At the end of February 2005, Vodafone live! had 12.907 million subscribers in Japan. By the end of October 2005, the number of Vodafone live! subscribers had fallen by 138,000.


title: SoftBank Group

text: In March 2006, Vodafone began discussing the sale of the Vodafone Japan unit to SoftBank. Vodafone was unable to satisfy customers. Handsets had user interfaces that differed too much from the Japanese interface and lacked competitive features.


title: SoftBank Group

text: On 17 March 2006, Vodafone Group announced it had agreed to sell Vodafone Japan to SoftBank for about US$15.1 billion. On 18 May 2006, the unit was renamed "SoftBank Mobile Corp.", effective 1 October 2006.


title: SoftBank Group

text: On 4 June 2008, SoftBank Mobile announced a partnership with Apple and brought the iPhone (3G) to Japan later in 2008. SoftBank Mobile was the only official carrier of the iPhone in Japan until the release of iPhone 4S in 2011, when au by KDDI began to offer it.


title: SoftBank Group

text: SoftBank Corp.'s mobile network operates W-CDMA (UMTS 3G) network ("SoftBank 3G"). SoftBank's 3G network is compatible with UMTS and supports transparent global roaming for UMTS subscribers from other countries.


title: SoftBank Group

text: Since May 2006, SoftBank's telecommunications marketing and commercials have principally revolved around "Otosan sujan karki", the canine patriarch of the otherwise human "Shirason, Kaito" family. "Otosan" translates to father, and the character, a Hokkaido dog, indeed acts as the father of the family, along with the son "Kojiro" (starred by Dante Carver), mom "Masako" (Kanako Higuchi), and daughter "Aya" (Aya Ueto). The advertising series proved to be popular: CM Research Center ranked the Otousan adverts as the most popular in Japan between 2007 and 2012, based on monthly surveys of 3,000 randomly selected adults.


title: SoftBank Group

text: SoftBank partnered with the Ingress augmented reality game, supporting the branded "SoftBank Ultra Link" in-game item.


title: SoftBank Group

text: SoftBank bought a "team" for the America's Cup. The team was named SoftBank Team Japan, and Yanmar came on board. SoftBank Team Japan raced in the 2017 races held in Bermuda. The team members come from various backgrounds, most of whom were not Japanese.


title: SoftBank Group

text: The company was the official jersey sponsor of the Japanese national basketball team at the official 2017 Asian Basketball Championship in Lebanon as well as the 2019 FIBA World Cup.


title: SoftBank Group

text: SoftBank has also owned the Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks, a Japanese professional baseball team based in Fukuoka, since 2005. The SoftBank logo appears on the jersey, and the team has won seven Japan Series championships under SoftBank, all of which came between and .


title: SoftBank Group

text: In 2015, SoftBank, along with some other companies in Japan, offered a baby bonus for employees who have children. The payments range from US$400 for a first child to US$40,000 for a fifth child.


title: SoftBank Group

text: SoftBank Investment Advisers oversees SoftBank's Vision Fund which invests in emerging technologies like artificial intelligence, robotics and the internet of things. It intends to develop a portfolio 125 AI companies. It also invests in companies to revolutionize real estate, transportation, and retail. Son makes personal connections with the CEOs of all companies funded by Vision Fund. Son plans to raise $100 billion for a new fund every few years, investing about $50 billion a year in startups.


title: SoftBank Group

text: SoftBank Ventures Asia (SBVA) is the global early-stage venture capital arm of the SoftBank Group The firm focuses on early-stage ICT investments – including Artificial Intelligence (AI), the internet of things (IoT), and smart robotics. By October 2021, SBVA has backed more than 250 companies in 10 countries with US$1.3 billion fund under management.


title: SoftBank Group

text: SoftBank Ventures Asia (SBVA) was founded in 2000 as SoftBank Ventures Korea and began its focus on South Korean market and its early-stage ventures. SBVA’s one of the early investments in South Korea includes Nexon Co, now a Korean-Japanese gaming publisher that was the largest IPO in Japan for 2011.