Japanese telecoms giant Softbank Corp is reportedly looking into increasing its investment in Europe, should the projected merger between its US unit Sprint and rival cellco T-Mobile US fail, TMT Finance reports. According to sources familiar with the matter, UK-based telco Vodafone and Deutsche Telekom (DT) of Germany are reportedly among the potential targets, with European data centre and cloud-focused businesses also on its wish-list. Further, as Vodafone is said to be valued at around USD160 billion, Softbank could fund a potential deal using the proceeds from the initial public offering (IPO) of China-based tech giant Alibaba; Softbank owns a 37% stake in the company, estimated to be worth USD44 billion. Sources pointed out that the remainder of Softbank’s funding is likely to be provided by Japanese banks.