By Chris Wright
Softbank/Vodaphone
Japan is becoming familiar with some unexplored concepts recently. There’s been the audacious leveraged buyout (Softbank/Vodafone); the blue-chip hostile takeover bid (Oji Paper/Hokuetsu); the Japanese company making transformational acquisitions overseas (Toshiba/ Westinghouse). And now the Tokyo Stock Exchange is about to discover something equally uncharted: being sued.
In December 2005, a trader at Mizuho Securities made a big mistake. Wishing to sell one share in cable TV and telecoms business J-Com for ¥610,000, he accidentally entered a sale of 610,000 shares at ¥1 – more than the outstanding stock of the entire company. Realizing his mistake within minutes, the trader tried to cancel the order, only to find himself unable to do so, thanks to a glitch in the Tokyo Stock Exchange’s software.
Demand for recompense
Mizuho, which ended up having to pay ¥912,000 ($7,800) per share to unwind its unintended short...
You must be a Level 2 subscriber to access this archived content.
If your subscription includes access to the archive, please log in now to view.
To gain access to this content visit the subscription page or call our hotline on +44 (0)207 779 8999.
Subscribe online now and save up to 30% on your subscription.
If you are a trialist or subscriber, please enter your username and password at the top right-hand side of euromoney.com
Subscribers to Euromoney benefit from:
Level 1:
- Online access to the past 12 months content
- Tailored RSS news feeds direct to your desktop
- News delivered directly to your mobile device or PC
- Personalised email newsfeed of 'Top stories' and 'Breaking news'
Level 2:
- Exclusive access to euromoney.com - Read the latest issue early online, search for specific developments by region or sector, interrogate the results of Euromoney's benchmark polls, and view the archive dating back to 2000
- 12 monthly issues of Euromoney magazine
- More than 30 specialist research guides free
- The results of Euromoney’s polls and surveys
- Tailored RSS news feeds direct to your desktop
- News delivered directly to your mobile device or PC
- Personalised email newsfeed of 'Top stories' and 'Breaking news'
Click here to subscribe