Why did KDDI and Mitsubishi Corporation embark on joint management of Lawson? Is the ultimate purpose of the partnership to acquire “that EC company”?

Next, what was Lawson’s parent company, Mitsubishi Corporation, thinking? This is my own theory based on information obtained from various sources.

Mitsubishi Corporation has always been strong in logistics. But I didn’t have a place to sell it.ThereforeI tried to secure a place to sell by owning my own retail store called a convenience store.. That’s why we acquired Lawson. However, Mitsubishi Corporation specializes in large-scale businesses such as resources. Convenience stores, on the other hand, are a business that sells low-priced items at extremely high speeds, so they have to be agile. A sense of speed is necessary.

The heavy and large Mitsubishi Corporation and the small and light Lawson may not have been very compatible in terms of speed.That’s my opinion.

In my opinion, the reason why FamilyMart and Itochu are doing so well is because, even among trading companies, Itochu is strong in daily necessities. Because he is used to small-scale business, he can keep up with the speed of Family Mart. However, Mitsubishi Corporation is big and does heavy business, so that is impossible. I think that’s why FamilyMart gradually started to overtake us and I started to feel a sense of crisis.

Mitsubishi Corporation wants to expand into digital, KDDI wants to create an economic zone

Additionally, it is important to note that Mitsubishi Corporation clearly stated that it wanted to go digital from the time of the previous president, Takehiko Kakiuchi.However, trading companies are not strong in digital to begin with. That’s why I want to collaborate with someone else. So partnering with KDDI is not a bad teaming up. Furthermore, KDDI had already partnered with Lawson for the Ponta Card, and had a small stake in Lawson. They were originally related.

Finally, what are KDDI’s intentions?The aim was to compete with Rakuten and Softbank by building an “economic zone” for KDDI.. In other words, in the mobile carrier payment business based on point cards, the two companies that are currently strong are the SoftBank Group with PayPay and the Rakuten Group with Rakuten Points. Of course, Softbank has mobile carriers, Yahoo, and PayPay. Furthermore, we are currently partnering with Seven & i, and nanaco is also entering the economic zone.

On the other hand, Rakuten does not have a physical store, but it has e-commerce, banks, securities, and credit cards centered on Rakuten Market, and the more you use Rakuten services in your life, the more Rakuten Points you earn. ” has been successfully constructed.

Of course, KDDI also has a Ponta card, but compared to Softbank and Rakuten, not many people actually use it. KDDI is not only a mobile carrier, but also has various businesses including “au Jibun Bank.” However, none of them were very successful, and we lacked the next step to create an economic zone.

According to what I’ve heard, it’s rumored that this story was brought to KDDI by Mitsubishi Corporation. I don’t know how true or false it is, but I thought, “I guess so.”

As I mentioned earlier, Mitsubishi Corporation is not good at making steady operational improvements. However, they are good at things like M&A, so they should be able to carry out drastic corporate restructuring.that’s whyRather than trying to steadily improve Lawson, I think they decided to slow down and say, “We should just get KDDI to come in and reorganize Burn and Lawson. We can also work closely with KDDI.”.

Therefore, Mitsubishi Corporation approached KDDI. Apparently, KDDI President Makoto Takahashi thought about it for a while and then accepted the offer.

What President Takahashi had in mind was exactlyI imagine that in creating an economic zone to compete with Rakuten and SoftBank, “real stores will become important in the future.”.

In Japan, convenience stores have the most real customer contact points. When you think about it, this is certainly a gamble, but if KDDI’s digital services are successfully incorporated into physical stores, a new economic zone that combines the physical and digital will be created. President Takahashi may have had such a big idea from the beginning. My guess is that he was approached by Mitsubishi Corporation and said, “Okay, let’s do it.”

This is almost the first time in Japan thatAn economic entity was born that had everything: a huge distribution network (Mitsubishi Corporation), a database of stores and real customers across the country (Lawson), and digital services and a Ponta card for payments (KDDI).That’s why.

I’m still not sure exactly what we’ll do from here, but the fact that we have all these assets will have a big impact. If KDDI and Mitsubishi Corporation do well, it is possible to create an economic zone that can rival or even beat Rakuten and Softbank.

Consolidate mobile shops and convenience stores

If these are the “front” reasons, I guess there is another “back” reason as well. The population will continue to decline due to the declining birthrate and aging of the population. That means convenience stores and KDDI mobile shops will no longer be needed as much as they are now. In particular, there are too many mobile phone shops as they are now.Therefore, KDDI must have been thinking about how to downsize its mobile phone shop.

If we integrate this with convenience stores, we will be able to sell mobile phones and related products at convenience stores, which should reduce the need for mobile phone shops. In other words, we can increase the added value of convenience stores by selling mobile phones and related products at convenience stores. I think that for the reasons mentioned above, the intentions of Mitsubishi Corporation, KDDI, and Lawson were aligned.

KDDI’s weakness was that it had no customer contact points, but by finally opening a physical store, the number of customer contact points will increase dramatically. If you do that, it will be easier for your banking business to go smoothly.

However, the difficult thing is, as I said earlier, speed is essential in convenience store business.Like Mitsubishi Corporation, KDDI is a “heavy” company, so the key will be how well executives and people in the field can keep up with the speed.

If it were me, I might bring in someone from outside who is capable of speedy management and have them handle the convenience store reform all at once.

Is the ultimate goal to acquire Rakuten?

However, there is a trick to avoid having to bring in such personnel. The people at KDDI and Mitsubishi Corporation probably won’t tell anyone outside, but…The scenario that we are definitely thinking about in the back of our minds is the acquisition of Rakuten.

Actually, I think the management teams at KDDI and Mitsubishi Corporation are definitely thinking about it (lol).

Mr. Mikitani only owns a portion of the stock, so it doesn’t matter. Rakuten is a listed company, so it should be possible to buy it through a TOB, or takeover offer. It may turn out to be a so-called hostile takeover.

Rakuten’s stock price is not high right now, and Mitsubishi Corporation and KDDI have a combined market capitalization of 20 trillion to 30 trillion yen, so they have a lot of cash so they can afford to buy it. But I don’t think I’ll buy it yet. Rakuten’s stock price has fallen another notch and they are starting to make a TOB bid when things are really getting tough. The remaining floating-vote shareholders will naturally sell their shares once the premium has been paid.

Rakuten’s business became difficult after entering the mobile business, but in order to do so, they borrowed lines from other companies. As for where I rent from, the main one is KDDI. Therefore, Rakuten and KDDI have a deep relationship to begin with.

This is not what I was saying, but Mr. Atsushi Ishikawa, a smartphone/mobile phone journalist who appeared on TV the day before, said that KDDI probably knew that the risks were quite high ever since Rakuten entered the mobile carrier market. Ta.Still, the reason I dared to lend the line was because I expected Rakuten to weaken.. If it weakens, Rakuten’s market capitalization will fall.

No, I think I thought about it at least a little. What KDDI wants most is Rakuten’s business. After all, trying “Jibun Bank” probably didn’t work out. But Rakuten Bank is popular. “Rakuten Securities” is also strong.andKDDI should want EC.

So, I’ll never say it publicly, but in a few years, if Rakuten’s mobile business still doesn’t go well and they say, “It’s no good,” shareholders will no longer be able to tolerate it. If Mitsubishi Corporation and KDDI join forces to make a TOB, they should be able to acquire the company.My prediction is that Japan will have two major digital economic zones: the “Yahoo-Softbank Alliance” and the “KDDI-Mitsubishi Corporation-Rakuten Alliance.”

Mr. Takahashi of KDDI is an excellent manager, so he must have already thought about things as much as I, an outsider, would.

In that respect, Docomo completely missed the boat. It’s going to be a little tough going forward.

Whether or not a company can take such bold corporate action depends on the courage of its president. From my perspective, Mr. Takahashi is someone who can do something bold like this.

Also, if this business goes well, I think KDDI will receive more Lawson stock from Mitsubishi Corporation. There is no need for Mitsubishi Corporation to own 50%.

Well, I think it will start at 50:50 for now, and KDDI will become Lawson’s parent company in the medium to long term. Instead, Mitsubishi Corporation might say, “I’ll give you Lawson stock, but let me buy KDDI stock in return.” So KDDI and Mitsubishi Corporation formed a capital alliance, and we received 5% or 10%, deepening our relationship. By doing so, Mitsubishi Corporation will be able to enter the digital business, which has been its long-cherished desire.

As for Mr. Mikitani, I have heard from various sources, and he seems to think that he still has a chance of winning. That said, I think Mikitani-san is an amazing person. In fact, Rakuten’s mobile business seems to be showing signs of improvement little by little. However, going forward, the key will be whether we will be able to redeem our corporate bonds.

In any case, I believe that more major industry reorganizations like this need to occur in Japan. That’s why I think it’s not a bad thing to move rigid industries led by large companies like this.

Akie Iriyama:Professor, Waseda University Graduate School of Business Administration (Business School). He graduated from the Keio University Faculty of Economics and completed the master’s program at the same Graduate School of Economics. After working at Mitsubishi Research Institute, he received a Ph.D. from the University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Business in 2008. From the same year, he became an assistant professor at the Business School at the State University of New York at Buffalo. Since 2013, he has been an associate professor at Waseda University Graduate School of Business Administration (Business School). Current position since 2019. His books include “What are management scholars around the world thinking now?” “The world’s most advanced management studies that you can’t learn in business schools” and “World-standard management theory.”