SoftBank Net Profit Surges

SoftBank Corp. said its quarterly net profit rose 44 percent from a year earlier, helped by strong demand for the Apple Inc. iPhones its mobile-phone unit offers in Japan. The Internet and telecom group is tapping that profit stream to turn around recently acquired U.S. wireless carrier Sprint Corp. and hunt for new acquisitions.

The company, which has amassed more than 1,300 Internet and mobile companies since its birth as a software distributor three decades ago, said its July-September net profit rose to ¥156.65 billion ($1.59 billion) from ¥108.98 billion a year earlier. The company restated its past earnings to bring them into accordance with the International Financial Reporting Standards it adopted in April.

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