Japanese telecom Softbank's July-September profit jumps despite costs for Sprint layoffs

Softbank Corp. says its July-September profit more than doubled despite costs for job cuts at money-losing U.S. mobile operator Sprint Corp., in which it owns a majority stake.

The Japanese telecommunications and Internet-services company reported Tuesday a fiscal second quarter profit of 483.1 billion yen ($4.3 billion), up from 165.8 billion yen a year earlier.

Quarterly sales surged 23 percent to 2.11 trillion yen ($18.7 billion).

Softbank, the first to sell the iPhone in Japan, has widespread global investments including Chinese e-commerce company Alibaba, which listed in New York earlier this year after a record-busting stock sale.

Softbank said costs from layoffs at Sprint will total 17 billion yen ($150 million). Sprint is eliminating 2,000 jobs, or about 5 percent of its staff, to cut $1.5 billion in annual spending.