Rakuten wesentlich besser als Rocket

- und daher habe ich mir nach dem Einstieg bei Alibaba, die inzwischem mehr als 20% gut gemacht haben, auch einige Rakutens gekauft.

Look Out Amazon, Here Comes...Rakuten?
Japanese e-commerce firm Rakuten announced on Tuesday it is acquiring Ebates for $1 billion.

The acquisition, which Rakuten hinted at last week, is part of the Japanese company’s push to grow its base beyond its domestic market and hopefully, become a global player. Having made some $1.2 billion acquisitions to date along these lines, this is Rakuten’s most ambitious move to date.

However, investors are dubious that the company can absorb yet another foreign acquisition, much less one the size of Ebates, despite Rakuten’s strong cash position.
Then there is the ever-present Amazon, which dominates the e-commerce market in the U.S. Few believe it will falter in the face of Chinese giant Alibaba, much less a Rakuten-Ebates combo.

Rakuten Goes Forth

Not surprisingly, Rakuten says it is undaunted. For starters, it has assembled a very interesting mix of acquisitions. There is messaging app Viber, which it purchased for $900 million in February, the Canadian ebook offering Kobo, Spanish video service Wuaki.tv, Viki, a digital content platform and Buy.com.
Now it has picked up Ebates.

www.forbes.com/sites/erikamorphy/2014/09/...ere-comes-rakuten/

The global open RAN market size was estimated at USD 3.18 billion in 2025 and is predicted to increase from USD 4.23 billion in 2026 to approximately USD 46.33 billion by 2035, expanding at a CAGR of 30.72% from 2026 to 2035.

www.precedenceresearch.com/open-ran-market

Warum wird diese Zukunft auch nicht ansatzweise in Kursen eskomptiert, sondern passiert  eher  dass Gegenteil?
Meines Erachten setzen die Anbieter der alten Produkte gigantische Propaganda und Publicity ein, um Open RAN zu verzögern - verhindern können sie es jedoch nicht.  Und nicht wenige Telekom-Anbieter sitzen hier mit im  Boot, wenn kein Störenfried mit dann günstigeren Kostenstrukturen vorprescht - denn noch nicht abgeschriebene veraltete Einrichtung  zu entsorgen ist teuer. Und die Finanziers  der alten Apparatur hoffen auch noch, dass die Abschreibungen verdient werden, damit die Kredite zurückbezahlt werden können.

Conference-Call unterschlagen uns die diversen KI-Analyse und -Zusammenfassungen fast komplett: "Consolidated non-GAAP operating income increased significantly by JPY 99.2 billion year-on-year to JPY 106.3 billion."

Bei der gleichen Steigerung von JPY 99.2 billion in 2026 wären wir schon bei JPY 205.5 billion - das sind immerhin ca. 1.3 Milliarden Dollar und bei einer Bewertung auch nur mit 15-fachen schon ein Unternehmenswert von ca. 20 Milliarden Dollar - zwischen 9 und 10 Dollar pro Aktie.

flixpatrol.com/top10/rakuten-tv/world/2026-02-24/

Co-Innovation at the core: reflections on Rakuten Symphony’s first global partner summit

December 3, 2025

Hosting the first-ever Rakuten Symphony Global Partner Summit in Tokyo from November 16–18, 2025, marked a meaningful milestone for our organization and our partner ecosystem. Much more than a gathering, this summit brought together leaders from across the industry to celebrate collaboration, share insights, and explore opportunities for co-creating the future of connectivity.

From the outset, the energy in the room was palpable. Partners from technology, services, and infrastructure sectors came together-not just to listen, but to engage with Rakuten Symphony. The summit mirrored precisely what we try to do every day: co-innovation to make a difference for customers and partners alike.

symphony.rakuten.com/blog/...onys-first-global-partner-summit

Rakuten Mobile provided the underlying network infrastructure, including deploying and managing the necessary Open RAN elements. Cape integrated its software-defined capabilities with Rakuten Mobile's Open RAN hardware infrastructure, validating the reliability, throughput and connection speed under operational load.

Rakuten Mobile was selected for the integration due to its pioneering work in developing and operating the world's first fully virtualized, cloud-native mobile network. The company’s network technology offers superior agility, cost-effectiveness and advanced Open RAN capabilities, making it uniquely suited to support dynamic and demanding communication requirements.

Cape delivers ultra-secure network capabilities that allow the most sensitive communications to securely move across networks. The result is scalable, high-bandwidth connectivity designed for mission-critical use anywhere in the world, including complex military operations.

Kazuhiro Suzuki, Co-CEO, Rakuten Mobile, commented, "We are pleased to collaborate with Cape on this biennial exercise. Cape is the leader in secure cellular networks, and this provided a valuable opportunity to demonstrate the practical application of our cloud-native network architecture and advanced Open RAN capabilities in a real-world, high-stakes environment.”

John Doyle, CEO, Cape, said, "Rakuten Mobile's Open RAN infrastructure has been critical in providing the coverage our customers need across Japan, and we look forward to expanding this great partnership.”

The exercise took place from late January to early February 2026 across multiple U.S. military installations in Japan, operating in close coordination with the Japan Self-Defense Forces to support joint operations.

About Cape
Cape is a privacy-first mobile technology company making commercial cellular secure, resilient and mission-ready. Cape provides software-defined device and mobile network solutions to government, enterprises, and consumers. Its mission is to ensure communication is private, secure, and resilient. The company has raised $91M from investors including A*, Andreessen Horowitz, Costanoa Ventures, ex/ante, Point72 Ventures, XYZ Ventures, Forward Deployed VC, and Karman Ventures. Research partners include leading cybersecurity institutions including the Air Force Research Laboratory, the University of Maryland, and others.

corp.mobile.rakuten.co.jp/english/news/...20260225_01_lang_en

Announcement Regarding Redemption of USD Denominated Undated Subordinated NC5 Notes Issued in 2021

February 24, 2026

Rakuten announces the redemption of its outstanding US$750,000,000 5.125% Undated Subordinated NC5 Fixed Rate Reset Notes, issued on April 22, 2021. The redemption will occur on April 22, 2026, which is the first date on which the Notes may be redeemed at the option of Rakuten pursuant to their terms. Details of the redemption are as follows.

Securities to be redeemed:  Rakuten Group, Inc. USD 750,000,000 5.125% Undated Subordinated NC5 Fixed Rate Reset Notes (Rule 144A CUSIP: 75102W AA6, ISIN: US75102WAA62, Common Code: 233331201; Regulation S CUSIP: J6S87B AA6, ISIN: USJ6S87BAA66, Common Code: 233331210)

Redemption date: April 22, 2026 (First Date of Optional Redemption)

The redemption price: 100% of the principal amount of the Notes, together with any accrued and unpaid interest up to (but excluding) the redemption date

global.rakuten.com/corp/news/press/2026/...tegory=corp%2520ir

It could make sense to sell the 31 million AST-shares of Rakuten and buy back from the sale-amount shares of Rakuten.

February 25, 2026 at 07:40

Rakuten Group and Rakuten Bank have officially agreed to resume discussions regarding the reorganization of the group's fintech business. The plan aims to integrate Rakuten Bank, Rakuten Card, and Rakuten Securities Holdings into a single group to enable more agile decision-making and deeper cross-business collaboration. While a previous attempt at this reorganization was discontinued in September 2024, the companies cited a rapidly changing environment—including rising interest rates and intensified competition from major banking groups—as the primary driver for the January 2026 proposal to restart the process.

To ensure fairness, Rakuten Bank has established an independent special committee to oversee the transaction, as Rakuten Group currently holds a 49.26% stake. The reorganization is currently expected to take effect in October 2026, though specific participation from partners like Mizuho remains undecided. Rakuten Bank anticipates maintaining its listing on the Tokyo Stock Exchange Prime Market throughout the process.

filingreader.com/news-wire/tokyo/...-to-strengthen-integrated

Notice Concerning the Re Commencement of Discussions toward the Reorganization of Rakuten’s FinTech Business

February 25, 2026

global.rakuten.com/corp/news/press/2026/0225_13.html

Tue, February 24, 2026

Headline Panel Exploring AI and the Future of Affiliate Performance to Feature Guy Raz as Moderator with Zack Kass and Eric Seufert

SAN MATEO, Calif., Feb. 24, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- Rakuten International announces Rakuten Optimism, its U.S. flagship marketing conference, taking place May 5-6, 2026, at the iconic Arizona Biltmore in Phoenix, Arizona. Centered on the theme "Fueling Meaningful Connections," the two-day event will bring together more than 1,000 marketing leaders and professionals to explore the transformation of affiliate and retail marketing in an AI-driven, performance-first era.

finance.yahoo.com/news/...ces-optimism-2026-us-134400999.html

The RIC is a key component of Open RAN architecture, enabling software applications to intelligently optimize and automate radio network performance. Through collaboration with partners including AirHop Communications and Future Connections, Rakuten Mobile and Rakuten Symphony are integrating both third-party and in-house rApps into Non-RT RIC environments. These applications support use cases such as predictive network maintenance, mobility enhancement, traffic optimization and AI-assisted decision making, helping reduce manual intervention while improving network quality and reliability for customers.
“Partnering with Rakuten Mobile and Rakuten Symphony has fundamentally changed the deployment timeline for our network automation and optimization Apps,” said Bijan Golkar, VP of Engineering, at AirHop Communications. “The Rakuten Symphony RIC platform provides robust, standards-based APIs that accelerate the trajectory from requirements to network deployment. This efficiency allows AirHop to focus on what we do best: delivering innovative, AI-driven solutions across a broad range of network use cases.”
Alejandro Medina, CTO at Future Connections, said: “Deploying our rApps on Rakuten's nationwide RIC validates that purpose-built and AI-driven solutions can deliver measurable operational impact in real-world Open RAN environments. We look forward to continuing this collaboration to advance autonomous network operations.”
This initiative strengthens Rakuten Mobile’s leadership in Open RAN adoption and contributes to a healthier, multi-vendor ecosystem for telecom innovation. It also greatly contributed to TM Forum’s Autonomous Networks Level 4 validation, where closed-loop automation and artificial intelligence play a central role in network operations.
Vivek Murthy, President of OSS at Rakuten Symphony, added: “By supporting both third-party and Rakuten-developed rApps, our RIC platform demonstrates how open standards can translate into practical innovation. This milestone shows that Open RAN is not just a concept, it is delivering results in live networks today.”
Rakuten Mobile's success in third-party rApp integration and nationwide RIC deployment is also a result of its participation in key research and development projects with the National Institute of Information and Communications Technology (NICT), Japan, focusing on the development of advanced Open RAN technology for the Beyond 5G era, and edge cloud capabilities for next-generation communications.
Rakuten Mobile and Rakuten Symphony continue to engage with additional ecosystem partners and rApp developers to expand the range of use cases and accelerate adoption across the industry. Rakuten welcomes technology partners and developers to engage with its RIC program to onboard and validate rApps and xApps on the only fully developed nationwide RIC on a commercial network in the world today.
corp.mobile.rakuten.co.jp/english/news/...20260226_01_lang_en

These are precisely the pain points Rakuten Ichiba is targeting with the recent launch of its AI concierge. Shoppers can now describe their budgets, preferences and usage scenarios through text, voice and images to get the most relevant possible suggestions from Rakuten Ichiba’s approximately 500 million items.

Travel planning, meanwhile, presents its own challenges. Many respondents expressed that they felt overwhelmed by information, struggling to compare options, assemble complete itineraries, and identify the best timing. AI could help predict prices and crowds, suggest destinations based on preferences, and build end-to-end travel plans.

In September 2025, Rakuten Travel launched its AI Travel Search, a free AI agent that leverages data from the platform’s reviews, trend insights, and diverse hotel plans to provide tailored recommendations. Understanding natural language, the agent provides a user-friendly display, allowing travelers to easily compare multiple relevant options that suit their destination, length of stay, budget, and many other preferences.

rakuten.today/blog/japanese-consumers-embracing-ai-survey.html

Commerce & Marketing Company Enhances UX with AI and Data Integration

February 25, 2026

The Commerce & Marketing Company is integrating AI agents into its services such as Rakuten Ichiba, Rakuten Travel, and Rakuten Beauty. By leveraging shared knowhow, development periods are continuously shortening. Furthermore, the Rakuten Ichiba AI agent, fully launched in December 2025, proposes products to users across services by integrating data from multiple platforms, including Rakuten Ichiba, Rakuten Fashion, Rakuten Rakuma, and Rakuten Books. This has generated profits, with users' average order value increasing by approximately 26%.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=paViql3Wc9s

Yomiuri: Rakuten Group to Resume Talks Toward Reorganizing Fintech Businesses

Last Updated: Feb. 26, 2026 at 1:53 a.m. ET

By Hikaru Sunaga / Yomiuri Shimbun Staff Writer

Rakuten Group Inc. announced Wednesday that it will resume discussions toward the reorganization of the group's fintech businesses. It is considering integrating its online securities, credit card and smartphone payment businesses, centered around its listed subsidiary Rakuten Bank Ltd., by around October this year.

Rakuten Group intends to improve profitability by strengthening collaboration among its financial businesses and advancing cost reduction efforts.

Rakuten Securities Holdings Inc. and Rakuten Card Co. would become the subsidiaries of Rakuten Bank, establishing a structure for integrated management. Rakuten Bank is expected to remain listed.
As rising interest rates have increased funding costs, the group aims to curb these costs by enhancing the availability of Rakuten Bank. Collaboration would also be promoted in the utilization of AI.

www.marketwatch.com/story/...zing-fintech-businesses-ee3b36d2

Rakuten Mobile generates approximately 50% additional revenue from non-connectivity services, with engagement and lifetime value increasing as subscriber tenure grows.

As Mickey Mikitani, Chairman and CEO of Rakuten Group, aptly puts it, "This is a business model transformation, not just a technology shift... Rakuten has shown that when you build a true ecosystem around membership, you create value far beyond transactions."

"This is a business model transformation, not just a technology shift... Rakuten has shown that when you build a true ecosystem around membership, you create value far beyond transactions." – Mickey Mikitani, Chairman and CEO of Rakuten Group

From Connectivity Provider to Ecosystem Enabler

Rakuten Symphony is empowering operators to make this transformation without replicating Rakuten Group's multi-decade journey. They are providing production-ready platforms and commercial blueprints that turn networks into engines of long-term growth.

Examples of these powerful, production-ready platforms include:

Point System Platform: A robust platform for building and managing loyalty programs.

Rakuten Cartera: For white-labeled affiliate marketing, opening up new revenue streams.

Rakuten Viber: A super app for communication, fostering deeper engagement.

Rakuten TV: For multimedia entertainment, enhancing customer stickiness.

Sharad Sriwastawa, President of Rakuten Symphony, emphasizes, "Rakuten Symphony is making this ecosystem-driven business model accessible to telecom operators worldwide... We’re offering a proven business practice from one of the world’s leading digital ecosystems."

By adopting this model, operators can unlock new revenue streams, increase engagement frequency, reduce customer acquisition costs, and significantly extend customer lifetime value. It's about moving beyond being a utility provider and becoming a central part of your customers' digital lives.
"Rakuten Symphony is making this ecosystem-driven business model accessible to telecom operators worldwide... We’re offering a proven business practice from one of the world’s leading digital ecosystems." – Sharad Sriwastawa, President of Rakuten Symphony

symphony.rakuten.com/blog/...lecom-growth-beyond-connectivity

“Rakuten Mobile has deployed a nationwide network offering the most immersive user experience using AI-powered communication solutions,” said Puneet Handa, Executive Officer and Head of Strategy and Products at Rakuten Mobile. “Radisys’ Engage Digital Platform allows for rapid development and deployment of new and innovative services to our customers without the need for repeated integrations.”

“Rakuten Mobile is a proven innovator, leading with a fully cloud-native architecture from the outset,” said Arun Bhikshesvaran, CEO of Radisys. “We are proud to be enabling the next phase of Rakuten Mobile’s journey through our Engage Digital Platform, which allows them to launch new communication and customer engagement services quickly and monetize their networks without complex integrations or product silos.”

With Engage Digital Platform’s ‘build once, launch many’ model:

New services are created and deployed on the same platform, eliminating the need for repeated integration work.

Return on investment improves, as one-time platform deployment supports an expanding set of use cases over time.

Service agility increases, allowing Rakuten Mobile to stay ahead of market demands and deliver differentiated experiences directly to its customers.

This approach stands in contrast to competing solutions that are often siloed—each tied to a single service or use case, requiring new investments and integration efforts for every expansion.
By adopting a platform-driven model, service providers can accelerate the development and delivery of next-generation digital services. Radisys’ EDP enables the deployment of advanced offerings, including private 5G networks, network slicing, edge-based applications, and network API exposure, while leveraging existing infrastructure and unlocking new monetization models.

About Radisys
Radisys is a global leader in open telecom solutions and services. Its disaggregated platforms and integration services leverage open reference architectures and standards combined with open software and hardware, enabling service providers to drive open digital transformation. Radisys offers an end-to-end solutions portfolio from digital endpoints to disaggregated and open access and core solutions to immersive digital applications and engagement platforms. Its world-class and experienced network services organization delivers full lifecycle services to help service providers build and operate highly scalable and high-performance networks at optimum total cost of ownership. For more information, visit www.Radisys.com.

hub.radisys.com/press-release/...-platform-centric-approach-2

February 23, 2026

Malta-based Med Media Services has announced the launch of its FAST channel MED.TV on Rakuten TV. With this new distribution agreement, MED.TV is now available in 43 European territories, reaching a potential audience of more than 150 million households.  

Launched in 2025, MED.TV showcases the Mediterranean through a premium mix of original and curated content spanning documentaries, travel and culinary series, feature films, classical concerts and opera, as well as coverage and highlights from business events and Mediterranean-focused current affairs programmes.

www.advanced-television.com/2026/02/23/...nnel-on-rakuten-tv/

Daiso Sangyo decides to introduce "Rakuten Pay Salary"

February 27, 2026

Daiso Sangyo, Rakuten Payment and Rakuten Edy are the two companies that develop "DAISO", "Standard Products", and "THREEPPY". We are pleased to announce that we have agreed to introduce "Rakuten Pay Salary" on Friday, February 27, 2026. The three companies aim to start using the service in May 2026 and prepare for the introduction.

This initiative is made possible through the collaboration between Daiso Sangyo, Rakuten Payment, and Rakuten Edy, and will support Daiso Sangyo's DX promotion and the improvement of employees' DX mindset. Daiso Sangyo will improve convenience by utilizing the Rakuten Economic Zone, which provides a variety of services such as Rakuten Pay, Rakuten Point Card, and Rakuten Ichiba, and will contribute to the promotion of digitalization of society as a whole.

Under the corporate motto of "Changing the lives of people around the world at one price ~Impressive price, impressive quality~", Daiso Sangyo has developed "DAISO", "Standard Products", and "THREEPPY" with the aim of becoming a global retail business originating from Japan, and handles approximately 53,000 products ranging from daily necessities to hobbies and luxury items.

payment.rakuten.co.jp/news/2026022700/

Japanese operator Rakuten Mobile, which recently announced it had reached 10 million connections, recorded full year 2025 revenues of 374.7bn yen (Dollar 2.45bn), up by 32% year on year, driven by expanding subscriber numbers and higher ARPU , its parent company Rakuten Group announced in this earnings highlights release. As a result, Rakuten Mobile managed its first full year of positive earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA), at 12.9bn yen (Dollar 84m). Rakuten Group also announced that Rakuten Symphony, which is Rakutens telecom and cloud sector vendor and systems integration arm and which now has 74 customer relationships, achieved full year non-GAAP operating profit for the first time since founding, and recorded full year revenues of Dollar 571.3m.

KI-gestützte Nachrichtenverbesserung: Ende Februar/Anfang März 2026 hat Viber ein KI-gestütztes Feature eingeführt, das auf OpenAI-Modellen basiert. Nutzer können damit direkt im Eingabefeld Texte korrigieren, den Tonfall anpassen oder Übersetzungen durchführen. Die Nachrichten werden nach der Verarbeitung nicht zum Training der KI verwendet.

Rakuten Mobile to deploy 3,000 open mMIMO radios in Japan

February 27, 2026

3,000 radios in first phase – Rakuten Mobile is installing around 3,000 32T32R massive MIMO O-RAN radios as part of a broader rollout strategy.

7% throughput gain expected – The operator anticipates roughly 7% higher throughput in high-traffic areas due to wider coverage and higher gain antennas.

Smooth O-RAN integration – The 1Finity MIMO radios integrated without major challenges, with configurations largely aligned to O-RAN specifications.

Japanese carrier Rakuten Mobile plans to deploy around 3,000 32T32R massive MIMO O-RAN radios as part of the first phase of a broader rollout, the operator confirmed in an interview with RCR Wireless News.

Earlier this month, Rakuten Mobile and 1Finity, a Fujitsu company, had announced a collaboration to deploy 1Finity’s massive MIMO O-RAN radios across Rakuten Mobile’s nationwide 5G network in Japan.

www.rcrwireless.com/20260227/5g/rakuten-radios-japan

Rakuten Bank holds a free gift campaign for Rakuten Mobile line data SIM for 1 year if the conditions are met

March 2, 2026

Rakuten Bank Co., Ltd. (Headquarters: Minato-ku, Tokyo, President & CEO: Tomotaka Higashibayashi, hereinafter referred to as "Rakuten Bank") has been running a new life support campaign for spring since March 1, 2026.

In this campaign, 30,000 people will be selected by lottery to receive a Rakuten Mobile Line Data SIM for customers who use their Rakuten Bank account as a debit account for credit card bills, mobile phone bills, utility bills, etc. (account transfer), or receive new salaries and bonuses, and meet the prescribed conditions. Customers who are about to open a new account are also eligible.

www.rakuten-bank.co.jp/press/2026/260302.html

2.03.2026

Drei FAST-Channels von Rakuten TV sind ab sofort auch im Live-TV-Bereich von Prime Video in Deutschland verfügbar, das hat Rakuten TV am Montag auf dem Mobile World Congress (MWC) in Barcelona bekanntgegeben. Hintergrund ist eine strategische Kooperation mit Prime Video, die man jetzt eingegangen ist. In den kommenden Wochen starten darüber hinaus weitere Kanäle in Italien und Spanien, zusätzliche Kanäle und neue Märkte sollen folgen und die Kooperation schrittweise ausgebaut werden.

Im Rahmen der nun geschlossenen Kooperation kann die B2B Geschäftssparte von Rakuten TV, Rakuten TV Enterprise, auch FAST-Kanäle von Drittanbietern in Prime Video einbinden. Sidharth Jayant, Chief Product Officer bei Rakuten TV, sagt: "Unsere strategische Kooperation mit Prime Video stellt einen bedeutenden Schritt dar, um die Reichweite unserer Kanäle zu vergrößern und die Umsatzmöglichkeiten für unsere Rechteinhaber-Partner zu maximieren.

www.dwdl.de/nachrichten/105668/...astchannels_zu_prime_video/

AST SpaceMobile Extends Reach With Defense Deal And Orange Partnership

Mon, March 2, 2026

AST SpaceMobile (NasdaqGS:ASTS) has secured a defense contract with the U.S. Space Development Agency under the Europa Track 2 program.

The company has also partnered with Orange to pursue direct to cell satellite connectivity services in Europe.

AST SpaceMobile focuses on building a space based cellular broadband network designed to connect standard mobile phones directly to satellites. For you as an investor, these new agreements touch two important areas: government communications and European mobile connectivity, both closely watched parts of the satellite telecom sector.

The defense contract and the Orange partnership widen the range of potential use cases for AST SpaceMobile’s technology across both public and commercial markets. As these projects progress, investors will likely pay attention to how the company executes technically and operationally, and how these relationships may influence its future revenue mix and capital needs.

finance.yahoo.com/news/...xtends-reach-defense-141303642.html