FACTBOX-Five facts on Japan's jailed tycoon Takafumi Horie

(Reuters) - Takafumi Horie, the 34-year-old Internet entrepreneur who rattled corporate Japan with his celebrity lifestyle and takeover bids, was sentenced to two years and six months in jail on Friday for his role in a securities fraud at his former company Livedoor.

Here are five facts on the flamboyant ex-CEO.

- The T-shirt wearing, Ferrari-driving divorcee dropped out of Japan's prestigious Tokyo University to found Livedoor's predecessor, Internet startup Livin' on the Edge Inc, in 1996. He shot to fame in 2005, when Livedoor made a hostile takeover bid for one of Japan's biggest media groups.

- The takeover battle ended in a compromise, but along with Horie's 2004 attempt to buy a baseball team, Osaka's Kintetsu Buffaloes, its audacity won him widespread support. Fans dubbed him "Horiemon" due to his supposed resemblance to Doraemon, the rotund and popular Japanese cartoon cat.

- Horie's disdain for the establishment, which he once called a "club of old men", offended others, including members of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party's old guard. In August 2005 Horie announced he would stand as an independent candidate in a lower house election. Although he had former Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's backing, the poster boy for economic reform failed to win a seat.

- Under Horie, Livedoor became a symbol for a more aggressive, dynamic Japan. The dream run ended when Horie and other executives were arrested in early 2006. Livedoor's share price sank to 94 yen (80 cents) and the company was delisted in April 2006 over charges that it falsified financial statements.

- Horie, who has written a dozen business advice books, professed his innocence throughout his trial -- saying he had left his accounting to advisers. But his not-guilty plea may have marked him for harsher treatment in a country where executives who confess to white-collar crimes typically receive suspended sentences, commentators say.

Source: Reuters