Sprint owner Masayoshi Son reportedly buys house in Kansas City area

Sprint employees perhaps will soon be seeing more of Masayoshi Son around the Overland Park headquarters.

The Wall Street Journal reports that Son, chairman of Sprint and CEO of SoftBank Group Corp., has purchased a house in the Kansas City area.

The Journal report, which cited “people familiar with the matter,” was confusing geographically. It said Son’s house was in Kansas City, Kan., but was close to Sprint CEO Marcelo Claure’s home “in the Mission Hills neighborhood of Kansas City.”

Sprint in Overland Park declined to comment to a question from The Star seeking to verify the Journal’s report.

The Journal’s report said that Son, who lives in Japan, didn’t plan to move to the Kansas City area house full time.

Instead, he will stay there during more frequent visits to Sprint’s headquarters. That could be seen as more of a commitment to overhauling the struggling carrier.

The Journal said Claure encouraged Son to buy the house so he could hold meetings in Sprint’s principal offices rather than at offices in San Carlos, Calif., where he had been meeting with Sprint executives.

Son has a house in California that he purchased for reportedly close to $120 million. The Journal said the price of the house he purchased here couldn’t immediately be determined.

This story was originally published November 1, 2015 at 7:35 PM with the headline "Sprint owner Masayoshi Son reportedly buys house in Kansas City area."