[May 15, 2013] Softbank overtakes NTT Docomo as Japan's most valuable mobile carrier Tweet (Japan Economic Newswire Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) TOKYO, May 16 -- (Kyodo) _ Softbank Corp. surpassed industry leader NTT Docomo Inc. as a more valuable company on the stock market for the first time since Softbank entered the mobile phone business in 2006, after shares in Softbank finished trading Wednesday nearly 5 percent higher. The stock of Softbank, the parent of Softbank Mobile Corp., surged 4.56 percent to close at 5,960 yen, lifting its capitalization to 7.16 trillion yen. Docomo ended 1.75 percent higher at 162,800 yen, putting the sum of shares in the company at 7.11 trillion yen. Softbank Mobile ranks third with 32.74 million subscribers, according to industry market data. It has been drawing users away from Docomo, thanks to Apple Inc.'s iPhone smartphones. Docomo, which does not offer the iPhone, had around 61.54 million subscribers at the end of April, data by the Telecommunications Carriers Association showed. Softbank is also eyeing acquiring Spring Nextel Corp., the third largest cellphone company in the United States. KDDI Corp. has the second largest subscriber base of 37.92 million for its "au" brand of mobile phone services. Its market capitalization was close to 4.42 trillion yen. (c) 2013 Kyodo News International, Inc. [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]