g.communication

The March 19th edition of the Toyo Keizai magazine reports an embarrassing situation for G.communication.

According to the article (see attached PDF), G.com was looking to raise to some money last October, so it sought financing from Yohohama-based BOW Networks and put up a sizable chunk of its shares in G.Taste, G.Networks, and Yakiniku Saki as collateral. The shares amounted from around 4 to 10 per cent of G.com's issued stock and had a value at the time of about 500 million yen.

The last I checked, April 1st is still a few months away, but that's the question the Yomiuri shimbun asks in a brief article about G.communication's attempt at running a university.

The kanji for 2010 was "sho"（暑）meaning hot. Looking back on the year, as far as this blog is concerned, the word of the year is probably "GEOS" owing to the closure of its schools in Australia and then its bankruptcy in Japan. On the other hand, if you worked for Nova when it collapsed in 2007, the fact that the trustees have started paying unpaid wages probably came as a pleasant surprise. For what it's worth, here's a recap of the issues covered on Let's Japan.

After giving up GEOS and Nova and his job, Masaki Inayoshi is back in the saddle.

According to the Asahi shimbun, GEOS, Nova, and its juku cram schools were sold (again!) as of October 1 by G.communication to Inayoshi Capital Holdings, an investment firm set up by former G.communication chairman Masaki Inayoshi, who gave up his position in August.

Like many readers here, zakzak wonders about the odd combination of restaurant companies and English conversation schools.

Nova and GEOS are under new management. The new boss is Kobe-based food and beverage importer and distributor Hanshin Shuhan. According to the Yomiuri shimbun, Foodys, the current parent company of Nova and GEOS, is to hand over its 50.98% share in the eikaiwa schools to Hanshin Shuhan by the end of August.

According to the Mainichi shuimbun, G.communication is to close two schools this month in Nagano. G.communication operates four GEOS schools and two children's schools in the prefecture. The Matsumoto school will close on the 20th and the Saku school on the 31st. A spokesperson called the closures the result of an "overall management decision."

When I wrote previously that the takeover of GEOS went smoothly, I remembered an old article sitting in my stack of stuff to do. It comes from JC-NET and was published on April 24, shortly after the bankruptcy was announced. As the title of this post says, the story suggests that there was a coup d'etat at GEOS that allowed for G.communication to swiftly move in and take over the company.

Yesterday's Have Your Say column in the Japan Times carried a reply to Richard Smart's article on eikaiwa being on the ropes. The author of the letter suggests that the media have not been reporting on the problems with the G.communication takeover of GEOS.

On the Comment Factory, Jordan Pearson has a summary of the state of eikaiwa following the collapse of Nova and GEOS.