Softbank behind Honda B team

Softbank, Japan's biggest IT business, is rumored to be the funding behind the rumored Honda B team. The company is controlled by 48-year-old billionaire Masayoshi Son, who has been using sports to promote his business in the past few years, buying the naming rights to the Green Stadium in Kobe, and renaming it after Yahoo! BB, one of his most successful businesses. Son also acquired the Fukuoka Hawks baseball teams, which is based in the area of southern Japan where he grew up.

At the height of the dot.com boom Softbank was valued at $140bn and while many of the businesses later ran into trouble, Son's successes easily outweighed the failures and by reducing his stake in Yahoo! he was able to fund other acquisitions, notably in the broadband industry and in telecommunications. Softbank recently bought Japan Telecom for $3bn. Grandprix.com