Update: Oak Pacific has raised a total of US$430 million from Softbank, JOHO Capital and SBI Group for 35 percent of the company.

The original post:
Bloomberg reports that Softbank has acquired a 14 percent stake in Chinese Internet company Oak Pacific Interactive, confirming rumors of a new investment in the company that we first saw in January. The Bloomberg story said that Softbank may increase its stake to 40 percent by 2011 for a total of US$385 million, eventually valuing Oak Pacific at almost US$1 billion. Oak Pacific has raised a total of US$58 million over two rounds from Accel Partners, General Atlantic, Doll Capital Management, Technology Crossover Ventures and Legend Capital.

Oak Pacific operates a number of websites, including Mop.com, Xiaonei.com and Donews.com. The company was one of the biggest stories in the Chinese Internet in 2006, but likely suffered from a lack of focus over the years. Mop was the company’s original flagship site, with Oak Pacific boasting traffic and advertising revenues rivaling some of the top portals, but faced struggles, and layoffs, when China Mobile cracked down on wireless service providers in 2006. Another Oak Pacific initiative, classifieds site Renren.com was launched and then shut down within a year. Xiaonei, a Facebook clone for China that Oak Pacific acquired in 2007, is now the company’s major focus, and Softbank apparently believes in the site as well. Xiaonei does appear to be growing (22 million registered users in March) and is reportedly generating RMB 5-6 million per month in advertising revenue. However, Oak Pacific and Xiaonei have a some work to do to grow into that $1 billion valuation.