Rakuten (Neutral) - Q2 21 Results Reaction: Roaming Costs Have Become a Big Deal

Rakuten Group (Neutral) - Testing the Waters on Further Funding

Rakuten Group (Neutral) - Q3 21 Results Reaction: Record Mobile Losses with Mixed Results Elsewhere

Rakuten Group (Neutral) - Credit Downgrade, Network Delays as Company Enters Toughest Stretch

Rakuten Group: Q1 21 Results - Profit Beat on One-Time Gains/Mobile Investment Accelerates

Seiyu: Back in the Mainstream Thanks to Rakuten

Rakuten Ramps up Logistics to Increase Lead in E-Commerce

Telco/Internet specialist

Kirk Boodry

Redex Research

Equity Bottom-Up

<p><a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/entities/rakuten-inc" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="entities:31:1" rel="noopener">Rakuten Inc (4755 JP)</a>  announcement of Symphony is good news. Even with news last quarter of an imminent announcement, we were skeptical on whether company plans to offer its cloud-native network as a service would be material but a 10-year outsourcing contract with Germany’s 1&amp;1 certainly is. And it is likely there are further revenue opportunities beyond that, albeit at smaller scale, as it sells elements of its technology stack a la carte. But there are risks that temper our enthusiasm as system integration (SI) margins tend to be both low and volatile even as it allocates a further $330mn (¥35bn) to make Altiostar a fully owned subsidiary. On balance, the establishment of a second revenue stream de-risks its mobile foray but markets are likely to be hesitant until its fully turns the corner on its Japanese mobile business. We remain at Neutral.</p>

Rakuten Inc (4755 JP)  announcement of Symphony is good news. Even with news last quarter of an imminent announcement, we were skeptical on whether company plans to offer its cloud-native network as a service would be material but a 10-year outsourcing contract with Germany’s 1&amp;1 certainly is. And it is likely there are further revenue opportunities beyond that, albeit at smaller scale, as it sells elements of its technology stack a la carte. But there are risks that temper our enthusiasm as system integration (SI) margins tend to be both low and volatile even as it allocates a further $330mn (¥35bn) to make Altiostar a fully owned subsidiary. On balance, the establishment of a second revenue stream de-risks its mobile foray but markets are likely to be hesitant until its fully turns the corner on its Japanese mobile business. We remain at Neutral.

Rakuten (Neutral) - Long-Promised Debut as Mobile Network SI Has Finally Dropped