 "Masayoshi, Masayoshi Son, Softbank")
SoftBank Group Corp. scrapped a planned $100 million investment in a smartphone startup founded by the creator of Google’s Android software, partly because of the Japanese investor’s increasingly close relationship with Apple Inc., according to people familiar with the matter.
The planned investment would have valued the startup, Essential Products Inc., at $1 billion, these people say, a lofty amount for a company that has yet to sell a product in one of technology’s most cutthroat industries. It had already been agreed to informally, and final investment contracts were being drawn up, say people familiar with the deal, a stage at
