Japan's SoftBank back in the black as investments improve

Japanese techlogy company SoftBank Group Corp. said Monday it restored its profitability in last quarter as its investments improved in value.

Tokyo-based company reported a 627 billion yen, or about $6.1 billion, profit in July-September, compared with a loss of 700 billion yen in same quarter of 2019.

SoftBank said its quarterly sales rose nearly 5% to 1.35 trillion yen, or $13 billion, from 1.29 trillion yen.

SoftBank's Vision Fund also has become profitable recently.

SoftBank, which invests in an array of companies, has sold U.S. carrier Sprint, as well as British IoT company Arm. It has also sold some its stake in Chinese e-commerce company Alibaba to raise cash for more investments.

Sprint merged with T-Mobile in April, which means Sprint is longer part of SoftBank’s group or earnings.

company's chief executive, Masayoshi Son, has described hardships from coronavirus pandemic to those of Great Depression.

But crisis has proven to be a plus for some techlogy companies as people stuck at home gear up to work remotely and shop online.

Some startups SoftBank has banked on have played out better than ors. Office-sharing company WeWork slammed earnings last year. But SoftBank still has hopes for WeWork’s potential in some markets such as Japan, where interest remains even with pandemic.

SoftBank also has investments in Yahoo! Japan and Pepper companion robot, and in its SoftBank mobile carrier in Japan, first to offer iPhone in Japan.