Softbank becomes majority owner of PeoplePC

Softbank Capital Partners has become the majority owner in PeoplePC, which sells PCs and Internet service through employers as a fringe benefit, through a new round of funding at the company. The venture firm led a group of investors that will place $21.9 million into the company.

With the investment, the group now owns 75 percent of the company and Softbank owns over half the company's outstanding stock, according to Nick Grouf, PeoplePC's CEO. As part of the investment, Ron Fisher, general partner at Softbank, will become PeoplePC's chairman. Additionally, the company has entered into a transaction with a telecommunications carrier in which the telco will give the company $11.2 million and PeoplePC will commit to directing a certain portion of bvits ISP business to the unnamed carrier.