“From then on, Masa was in the business of trying to repeat the Yahoo! formula: find a cutting-edge internet business in the US, then import the idea to Japan on his terms. The process would gradually be expanded into a cycle that fed SoftBank’s growth: attract leading foreign partners into joint ventures; own majority control of those ventures; eventually take the units public; use the proceeds to do more such deals. It was a push-me, pull-you approach: cultivating US tech executives while playing on Japanese fears of falling behind the West.”