SoftBank's Son seeks Alibaba-size scale with Yahoo-Line deal

CEO draws inspiration from his most successful investment

20191114 Son Ma photo

SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son speaks in front of a picture of himself and Alibaba founder Jack Ma Yun at a November 2014 news conference in Tokyo. © AP

TAKAFUMI HOTTA, TAKUYA IMAI and RYO IGAWA, Nikkei staff writers

TOKYO -- Undeterred by a huge loss on U.S. office-sharing platform WeWork, SoftBank Group CEO Masayoshi Son has set his sights on a new big plan: building a sweeping online ecosystem akin to China's Alibaba Group Holding.

Z Holdings, the SoftBank-owned parent of Yahoo Japan, and South Korea's Naver, which owns the popular chat app Line, are in final negotiations to bring the two internet companies under a single umbrella, Nikkei has learned.

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