Rakuten wesentlich besser als Rocket

Open RAN market to be worth US$3.2 bil in 2024
Jong Jun Lee

The global open RAN market will be worth US$3.2 billion in 2024, according to estimates by market research firm Omdia.

It is a 33% increase from Omdia’s previous estimation of US$2.4 billion.

Last year, the open RAN was worth only US$70 million.

Carriers were leading the way for open and virtual RAN development, Omdia said, while the ban against Huawei by the US government is also impacting growth.

Virtual RAN uses software to realize network functions. This increases the use of commercial off-the-shelf servers and chips, which US companies excel at.

Open RAN refers to carriers using multiple vendors to build their wireless networks instead of using one major vendor like Huawei, Ericsson, Nokia, ZTE and Samsung Electronics.

New carrier Rakuten Mobile in Japan is building an open RAN. Long time carriers that need to worry about syncing open RAN with their old networks will inevitably be slow to adopt open RAN, people familiar with the matter said.

Carriers are hoping to reduce cost by adopting open RAN. Rakuten Mobile claimed it has reduced CAPEX by 40% and operating cost by 30% by building an open RAN. South Korean telecom equipment maker KMW is supplying 4G radio unit to the Japanese carrier.

However, wider adoption open RAN will hurt margins of telecom equipment makers. Market leaders Huawei and Ericsson aren’t mentioning open RAN publicly as much as other vendors. Ericsson said back in July that open RAN can’t be an alternative to high-performance 5G network.

Nokia and Samsung Network has been more active in adopting open RAN. Nokia is taking part in Rakuten Mobile’s network. Samsung was developing open RAN technology with South Korea companies Solid, FRTek and Innowireless.

www.thelec.net/news/articleView.html?idxno=2062

By 2026, ABI Research predicts that for public outdoor networks, sales of Open RAN products will reach $40.7 billion

Dell’Oro Group predicts that by 2024, operators will spend somewhere north of $3 billion on Open RAN products, which is a double-digit share of the market in the next five years. By 2026, ABI Research predicts that for public outdoor networks, sales of Open RAN products will reach $40.7 billion, or 45% share. RAN Research, part of Rethink Research, is expecting Open RAN to “account for 58% of total RAN CAPEX (Open RAN hardware, software and services) spending at $32.3 billion and to be deployed at 65% of all sites by 2026.”

Though numbers vary between analyst firms as we can see, the future of Open RAN looks very hopeful for sure in the next five years, and 2021 will lay a good foundation for that future.

www.rcrwireless.com/20201207/open_ran/...or-2021-reader-forum

leaders-board of Intel

networkbuilders.intel.com/ecosystem

denn es kann durch diese Abkommen nur teilweise von der nahezu erfolgten Verdoppelung des Kurses von Lyft profitieren:

I believe, this is a very bad agreement of Rakuten from only few weeks ago, because Rakuten will not full participate from the strong increase of the market-cap of Rakuten.

Explanation of Responses: 1. These shares of Issuer class A common stock ("Common Stock") are held directly by Liberty Holdco Ltd. ("Liberty"), a wholly-owned subsidiary of Rakuten, Inc. ("Rakuten"), and such shares of Common Stock have been pledged to the Banks (as defined below) pursuant to the Transactions (as defined below). Liberty acquired these shares of Common Stock from Rakuten. 2. On October 21, 2020, Liberty entered into variable prepaid forward sale transactions (the "Transactions") in accordance with Rule 144 under the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, with unaffiliated financial institutions (the "Banks") relating to 31,395,679 shares of Common Stock in the aggregate following the completion by the Banks of their initial hedging periods. On the applicable settlement dates scheduled to occur during the third quarter of 2025 through the first quarter of 2026, Liberty will be obligated to deliver up to 31,395,679 shares of Common Stock or, at Liberty's election, and subject to satisfaction of certain conditions under the terms of such Transactions, pay cash in lieu of such delivery. In exchange for assuming this obligation, Liberty received a cash payment of $714,337,093.49 shortly following the date of entering into the Transactions. 3. Under the Transactions, on the applicable settlement dates, Liberty will be obligated to deliver to the Banks a number of shares of Common Stock determined as described below (or, under certain circumstances, at Liberty's election, an equivalent amount in cash). If the volume weighted average price of the Common Stock on the related averaging dates (the "Settlement Price") is less than or equal to $22.7527 (the "Floor Price"), Liberty will deliver to the Banks 31,395,679 shares of Common Stock in the aggregate (or, under certain circumstances, at Liberty's election, an equivalent amount in cash). 4. If the Settlement Price is between the Floor Price and $36.9732 (the "Cap Price"), Liberty will deliver to the Banks a number of shares of Common Stock (or, under certain circumstances, at Liberty's election, an equivalent amount in cash) equal to 31,395,679 shares in the aggregate, multiplied by a fraction, the numerator of which is the Floor Price and the denominator of which is the Settlement Price. If the Settlement Price is greater than the Cap Price, Liberty will deliver to the Banks the number of shares of Common Stock (or, under certain circumstances, at Liberty's election, an equivalent amount in cash) in the aggregate equal to the product of (i) 31,395,679 shares and (ii) a fraction (a) the numerator of which is the sum of (x) the Floor Price and (y) the Settlement Price minus the Cap Price, and (b) the denominator of which is the Settlement Price. RAKUTEN, INC., By: /s/ Kenji 10/22/2020

investor.lyft.com/static-files/...9d60-4cef-b6b1-824b0add7a30

Eine simple Kreditaufnahme wäre die bessere Lösung gewesen - obwohl man das natürlich im Nachhinein besser weiß. Aber auch in weiteren Punkten, war das Kapitalmarkthandling von Rakuten nicht immer glücklich wie z.B. der Verkauf der Aktien von Pinterest zu Tiefstpreisen.

Rakuten Rewards and Rakuten Advertising Leaders Share Marketing Strategies
DECEMBER 23, 2020 by RNN

global.rakuten.com/corp/innovation/rnn/2020/2009_002/

Rakuten with an ownership of 5.3% of Upstart = about $150 million

Stakeholders holding more than 5 percent as Upstart goes into the IPO include:
• Third Point Ventures (19.5 percent), led the Series C in 2015;
• Stone Ridge Trust (9.5 percent);
• Khosla Ventures (8.4 percent), led the Series B in 2014;
• Rakuten (5.3 percent), led the Series C extension in 2017; and
• First Round Capital (5.2 percent), led the Series A round in 2013.

news.crunchbase.com/news/...-upstarts-s-1-earnings-ownership/

Upstart Holdings, Inc. (UPST)
47.84+6.74 (+16.40%)
At close: December 22 4:00PM EST

Previous Close 41.10
Open 43.10
Bid 0.00 x 800
Ask 0.00 x 800
Day's Range 40.65 - 48.08
52 Week Range 22.61 - 48.66
Volume 3,731,347
Avg. Volume 6,865,940
Market Cap 3.467B

finance.yahoo.com/quote/UPST?p=UPST&.tsrc=fin-srch

einen Wertanstieg seines Lyft-Bestandes von sage und schreibe ungefähr 600 Millionen Dollar.

Zwar hat man auch mit diesem Agreement durch den Kursanstieg von Lyft in Q4/20 einen Wertzugewinn, der aber wesentlich niedriger ausfallen wird.

Die 600 Millionen Dollar hätten nach meiner Einschätzung mit Sicherheit ausgereicht, um allein die Anlaufverluste von Rakuten Mobile auszugleichen.

Aber vielleicht reicht es ja auch mit dem durch das Agreement abgebremsten Wertanstieg, wenn man noch den Wertanstieg bei Upstart (siehe 6031) dazunimmt.

Shipments of open RAN macro radios will surpass a cumulative 1 million units through 2024, according to Dell’Oro Group. “Greenfield will dominate initially, but brownfield deployments are projected to comprise a growing share of the cumulative 2019-2024 open RAN market,” Pongratz wrote in response to questions.

“Given that the open RAN radio installed base is in the 10,000 to 50,000 range today, clearly it is still early days,” he said.

The firm assumes that North America and the Asia-Pacific region will dominate greenfield open RAN deployments, largely through Dish Network and Rakuten. Meanwhile, it expects European operators to be market leaders in integrating open RAN with existing networks.

Progress on full virtualization efforts is also contributing to the rise of open RAN as multiple suppliers have commercialized offerings consisting of virtualized central units and distributed units, Pongratz explained. This, the research firm claims, coupled with policies intended to stimulate the open RAN market and growing interest among operators is creating an improved outlook for open RAN at large.

www.sdxcentral.com/articles/news/...f-market-by-2025/2020/09/

um die 40% hält, müsste in Q4/20 - korrespondierend zu den Anstiegen von Lyft und Cabify - stark angestiegen sein.

Siehe ergänzend zu Bewertung:
craft.co/cabify

Rakuten

Description
Founded in 2012 and headquartered in Herndon, Virginia, Innoeye Technologies is a technology solutions company focused on engineering, development, and design.... Read More
Headquarters: 13800 Coppermine Rd, Fl 1, Herndon, Virginia, 20171, United States
Employees: 499
Revenue: $126 Million

www.zoominfo.com/c/innoeye-technologies-pvt-ltd/356588191

Vermutlich werden es nicht die angeführten 126 Millionen US-Dollar sein, weil Rakuten ein großer Auftraggeber von Innoeye ist, aber die Wertschöpfung wird natürlich in voller Höhe steigen.

Open vRAN system integration is a more transparent, better way to deploy RAN (Reader Forum)

By Shabbir Bagasrawala, Head of Go-To-Market, Altiostar on DECEMBER 21, 2020

The disintermediated nature of open virtualized radio access networks (Open vRANs) is the key to the flexibility, cost savings and innovation that have made it a part of the plan for many mobile network operators (MNOs) that are expanding a 4G network or embarking on a new 5G network.

Some people have suggested this multivendor approach is creating a systems integration burden for MNOs. But in reality, the concept of system integration has always been a part of RAN networks. With a legacy network, it came bundled into the whole solution. But it was never performed solely by one vendor. With Open vRANs, there’s a more transparent process with the MNO selecting best of breed integration firm or firms to deploy the network.

With Open vRAN, system integration is one of the flexible elements of an overall system – contributing to the modularity, cost effectiveness and flexibility of Open vRAN solutions.

www.rcrwireless.com/20201221/open_ran/...loy-ran-reader-forum

Harnessing the Edge: Why telco providers should consider a horizontal platform approach

Platforms that are horizontally integrated can also reduce the total cost of ownership (TCO) compared to silo-based, vertically integrated deployments. Horizontal platforms allow applications to easily automate, while the vertical alternative requires more tools, processes and is more likely to lock service providers into one vendor offering. The multi-vendor approach gives providers more flexibility and allows them to benefit from an accessible, smartly distributed ecosystem.

When it comes to operating expenses, vertically integrated deployments require the design and running of separate infrastructure silos according to how many software vendors are being used. Whereas according to a recent ACG Research analyst paper, sponsored by Red Hat, with a horizontal approach communications service providers can halve the engineering, planning and management expenses, cut the cost of securing multiple silos by a third, as well as saving on multiple software licenses. This reduces the total cost of ownership by as much as 30%.

wire19.com/...s-should-consider-horizontal-platform-approach/

By Lior Hadar

In 2020 Communities on Viber have been booming. With over 18 billion views across thousands of Communities on Viber – from organic ones launched by everyday people to influencer, brand, and business-led Communities around the world – they have become the new social platform for hundreds of millions of people.

As the Coronavirus started spreading around the world and countries applied local restrictions to fight it, we saw how Communities became a critical, life-saving tool for official health institutions in many countries.

In places such as the Philippines, Russia, and Ukraine, among others, official local COVID-19 Communities were launched with real-time verified updates and trustworthy information.

www.viber.com/en/blog/2020-10-28/...d-more-in-your-community/

Rakuten's FinTech Businesses Support Daily Lives of Customers

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i3yVtrwu3AQ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OSQGjWllZP8

by Cristina Constandache

17 December 2020 16:49pm

www.thedrum.com/profile/viber/news/...year-marketing-strategy

With a strong global presence in the past 10 years, Viber has become a household name for its free, interactive, and secure messaging

December 3, 2020

Rakuten Viber, one of the world’s leading apps for free and easy communication, rings in 10 years of bringing a new kind of messaging platform to people across the globe, one that values its users’ privacy just as it values mobile technology. Over the past decade, Viber has become a household name for its free, interactive, and secure messaging that allows people to connect with whoever they want, wherever they are.

Today, Viber is well on its way toward becoming an all-encompassing communication platform expanding into utilities and fintech, while never relenting on its commitment to protecting user privacy.

In 2020, Viber introduced a few features that proved to be essential during the pandemic, such as group video calls, and bolstered its capacities, doubling the maximum number of participants to 20 people at once in Group Video and Audio Calls. In November, the company also announced its future plans to expand further into the fintech world, introducing its newest chatbot payments solution.

techlapse.com/press-release/...e-with-game-changing-features/

„Consider Rakuten Ichiba, Japan’s single largest online retail marketplace. It provides loyalty points and e-money usable at hundreds of thousands of stores, virtual and real. It issues credit cards to tens of millions of members. It offers financial products and services that range from mortgages to securities brokerage. And the company runs one of Japan’s largest online travel portals—plus an instant-messaging app, Viber, which has (more than 1.1 billion) users worldwide.“

www.mckinsey.com/industries/.../global-banking-annual-review#

Cabify and Glovo are member of the following list

sifted.eu/european-startups-top-rankings/

Rakuten is with about 40% the biggest owner of Cabify and a big owner of Glovo.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fw044oe19Jg

aimed at boosting efficiency

Japan Post Co. and major online shopping mall operator Rakuten Inc. have reached a basic agreement on a tie-up aimed at streamlining logistics with the use of digital technologies. The two companies will try to tackle delivery staff shortages and other logistics-related challenges by sharing Japan Post’s massive trove of data on postal items and Rakuten’s forecast information regarding online shopping demand, they said on Thursday. The mail delivery arm of Japan Post Holdings Co. and Rakuten will also consider cooperation in other fields such as cashless payment and mobile phone services. They aim to sign a final agreement in around March next year.

cdn-japantimes.com/wp-content/uploads/...2/np_file_59630.jpeg

Kubernetes on Bare Metal: The future of RAN
December 18, 2020 Glenn Rudolph

he relay race of cloud migration is continuing to evolve. Network function virtualization (NFV) kicked this race off, by lowering costs by moving from an appliance-based network to software-based equivalents. For the next leg of the race we see cloud-native architectures and containers increase efficiency, performance, resiliency, security and agility. While many service providers continue to see great success with virtual machines (VMs), most are now working to deploy containers on bare metal, without the added layer of virtualization, to better compete in the marketplace.

As these technologies improve, the radio access network (RAN) is also undergoing its own evolution. Service providers are scaling their networks to support increased demand and operators are looking towards disaggregation of the RAN via vendor Open RAN solutions, like those from Altiostar, for more freedom of choice, standardization and a decoupling of hardware and software.

To help aid this progress, Red Hat and Altiostar have expanded our work together so that virtualized and containerized RAN can be deployed with infrastructure, application and service automation. Altiostar has helped Red Hat develop the necessary components for running virtualized and containerized RAN and creating the necessary automation framework to support commercial deployment and reduce OpEx for operators. This collaboration delivers:

         •§The introduction of our infrastructure and workload automation framework for a container-based RAN reference architecture that allows a consistent approach to a disaggregated RAN - for both our customer and partner ecosystem

         •§Full RAN functionality using cloud-native network functions (CNF) infrastructure from Red Hat and Open vRAN software from Altiostar

         •§Cooperation on certification, integration and interoperability of Altiostar’s 4G and 5G based virtualized RAN (vRAN) and cloud RAN (cRAN) products with Red Hat Enterprise Linux and Red Hat OpenShift

www.redhat.com/en/blog/...uture-ran?sc_cid=701f2000001ORkmAAG

Quite a year: The changing vendor landscape in India

News AnalysisGAGANDEEP KAUR, Contributing Editor12/24/2020

Several factors contributed to the significant changes in the vendor landscape in the country in 2020.
Data consumption has been consistently growing over the past few years in India, and the COVID-19 pandemic further accelerated the use of online platforms. All this pushed the telcos to make significant investments in network upgrades and modernization.

The most significant development on the vendors' front was the unofficial departure of the Chinese gear makers Huawei and ZTE because of geopolitical factors.

The year also witnessed the growth of Open RAN vendors in the country.

Vodafone Idea, which has been vocal about its commitment to Open RAN, announced a partnership with Mavenir.

On the other hand, Bharti Airtel deployed Altiostar's open virtual Radio Access Network (vRAN) solution across several major cities in India.

www.lightreading.com/asia/...landscape-in-india/d/d-id/766320

Rakuten Payment's Online Cashless Payment Workshop for Parents and Children

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