TMCnet News
Rakuten to release baseball, soccer club shares to fans: Mikitani(Kyodo News International (Tokyo) (KRT) Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge) Jan. 1--TOKYO -- Rakuten Inc. plans to allow shares in its professional baseball and soccer clubs to be owned by local fans and business circles in the future, the company's president, Hiroshi Mikitani, said in an interview with Kyodo News. Rakuten, a major Japanese Internet shopping mall operator, owns the Rakuten Eagles baseball team of the Pacific League, based in Sendai, and a company managing Mikitani's personal assets owns the Kobe-based Vissel Kobe soccer club. Mikitani said he wants to deepen ties between the clubs and local communities by having part of the clubs' shares purchased by fans and seeking contributions from local business circles. "It's still from my personal perspective, but I'm also thinking of introducing special shares without shareholder voting rights, like the ones adopted by European soccer teams," for the envisioned club ownership by local fans and business circles, he said. |