Mountain View, CA -- November 29, 200 -- PRNewswire -- Ariba, Softbank and
Softbank E-Commerce, a wholly owned subsidiary of Softbank made public a
broad list of potential partners intending to work with Ariba Japan.
Today's announcement is the most extensive of its kind in Japan's emerging
B2B sector. The proposed partners increases the breadth and depth of Ariba
Japan's B2B Commerce Platform and network service solutions for Japanese
companies. The 20 proposed partners include major Japanese electronic
manufacturers, system integrators, banks, brokers and trading houses,
including: CAC Corporation, Fujitsu Support and Service, Hewlett-Packard Japan,
Hitachi, IBM Japan, Mitsubishi Electric, Morgan Stanley Dean Witter Japan,
NEC Corporation, Toshiba and Toyo Information Systems, to name a few.
This news follows Ariba's announcement last month of a pending
investment and comprehensive partnership with Softbank and Softbank
E-Commerce, under which they will each take a 20% equity stake in Ariba Japan.
"Japanese companies understand the cost and bottom line benefits of B2B
commerce and are rapidly accelerating their B2B deployment plans. The market
opportunity for providing comprehensive end-to-end B2B solution is enormous,"
said Dr. Mukesh Aghi, senior vice president, Ariba-Asia Pacific. "We believe
that Ariba Japan-with the support of these world-class Japanese partners -- is
well positioned to dominate in this market."
