Carlyle gets 'priority rights' to buy a major stake in KDDI's DDI Pocket. This is a form of increasing returns economists like to pretend doesn't exist: increasing returns to reputation. Reputation asymmetries tend to create greater reputation asymmetries, unless search costs are minimal. Think of it like preferential attachment for the 'double coincidence of wants' - the phrase we use to talk about what buyers and sellers must do to match themselves when markets are costly to use. And this is a very nice example of such a market.