Takafumi Horie
Takafumi Horie (Japanese堀 江 贵 文, Takafumi Horie, born October 29, 1972 in Yame, Fukuoka ) is a Japanese entrepreneur and former CEO of Livedoor.
He grew up in an average Japanese salaryman budget. As a student at the University of Tokyo, enrolled in the Literature Department, he founded in 1995 with friends, a web design company under the name Livin 'on the Edge and abandoned his studies. Livin 'on the Edge, he built through numerous acquisitions into the present company Livedoor Co. Ltd.. from.
Hories unconventional business methods came here in the conservative world of Japanese media industry to violent rejection. In 2005, he made headlines when he gained extensive interests in the radio station Nippon Broadcasting System ( NBS) in after-hours trading. This in turn was concerned about cross-shareholdings at the Fuji - Sankei Group, a conservative Japanese media empire, which also includes Fuji TV and the Sankei Shimbun belong. The ensuing bidding war finally ended that Livedoor's rival Softbank boarding at Fuji TV. For the first time it came thereby economic links between the "old" and "new" media in Japan.
But the acquisitions also showed that the legislation in Japan for such cases was not sufficient, and so led Japan in the wake of mergers and acquisitions laws on the American model one.
His unconventional appearance Horie made her a star among the young generation. He renounced suit and tie, the uniform of the Salaryman, and served in public a loose youth language. Its popularity made him a permanent fixture in the daily celebrity shows on Japanese television. He was nicknamed Horiemon, after the robot cat Doraemon.
On 19 August 2005 he made headlines again, when he announced to compete in the Japanese general election with the support of the LDP leadership as an independent candidate in the sixth constituency in Hiroshima. He was thus one of Koizumi " Assasinenkandidaten ", which were placed in position against political opponents within the LDP. His opponent, Shizuka Kamei, however, won the constituency with nearly 110 979 to 84 433 votes.
On 18 January 2006, the offices of Livedoor and Horie residence were searched on charges of securities fraud and money laundering. The shares of Livedoor immediately fell by 14.4 %, and the amount of sell orders forced the Tokyo Stock Exchange for the first time in its history to 20 minutes earlier to close. The Nikkei index fell 465 points, the highest loss in two years.
Regardless of how valid are the accusations, many newspaper comments saw but mainly political reasons behind the action: the response of the establishment on his challenge.
On 23 January 2006, Horie was arrested, and on 24 January he announced his retirement from the post of CEO of Livedoor known ( he is still the largest shareholder with 17% of shares). On April 27, he was put on bail of 300 million yen at liberty, under the condition that he has no further contact with Livedoor or employees of the company. Horie announced that he did not intend to get involved again in the company. He is also charged with having published false annual reports and to have supplied false information investors, but maintained his innocence. On 15 March 2007, a court in Tokyo Takafumi Horie sentenced for violations of the Securities Act to two and a half years in prison. The Supreme Court of Japan confirmed on 25 July 2008 against Hories appeal against his conviction for false accounting this sentence. A flood of sale applications had the stock exchange computer system completely overwhelmed in 2006. With this conviction made an example in the internationally highly publicized process, since usually get away with in Japan Group Manager at economic crimes with sentences of probation.