Softbank Corp is to invest about $31m for a 35% stake in Cupertino, California anti-virus and networking systems specialist Trend Micro Devices Inc. Trend Micro has already moved its headquarters to Tokyo as part of its plan to list its shares on Japan’s over-the-counter market as early as 1998. Trend Micro said the firm began sales of software in Japan in 1989 and that Softbank has provided it with support in distribution and sales. Softbank will try to persuade some 50 hardware makers worldwide to use Trend Micro’s anti-virus software in their systems and ask others to integrate the software in their memory boards.
