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SoftBank to sell most of its stake in 'Puzzle & Dragons' maker GungHo

The move comes a week after the telecommunications giant announced plans to sell part of its stake in Alibaba.

Headshot of Ben Fox Rubin
Headshot of Ben Fox Rubin
Ben Fox Rubin Former senior reporter
Ben Fox Rubin was a senior reporter for CNET News in Manhattan, reporting on Amazon, e-commerce and mobile payments. He previously worked as a reporter for The Wall Street Journal and got his start at newspapers in New York, Connecticut and Massachusetts.
Ben Fox Rubin
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Masayoshi Son, CEO of SoftBank, which has been working to trim its stakes in other companies.

 CNET

SoftBank said Monday that it agreed to sell off most of its stake in Japanese video game company GungHo for about $685 million. GungHo, best known for its mobile game "Puzzle & Dragons," plans to buy back the shares.

SoftBank, a Japanese telecommunications company that's the majority owner of Sprint in the US, has been busy selling off assets recently. It's part of a so-called "transformation strategy," brought on partly by a need to cut down on debt while it works to integrate Sprint into its company. About a week ago, SoftBank said it would sell a portion of its stake in Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba, which could net it roughly $10 billion.

The company is also in talks with China's Tencent to sell its majority stake in mobile games company Supercell, the Wall Street Journal reported last month.