SoftBank appear to think it’s possible to 10x their money while thrown $bn’s around. Seems unlikely to me
SoftBank is becoming uncool as a VC. Just comes across reckless.
The company, run by eccentric Japanese-Korean billionaire Masayoshi Son, has spent billions on stakes in high-risk, loss-making technology firms such as Uber.
Not to forget WeWork of course.
UK companies it invested in:
It bought British iPhone chip designer Arm Holdings in 2016 for £24 billion and has since amassed stakes in London-based supply chain finance firm Greensill, video gaming firm Improbable, small business bank Oaknorth, and satellite company OneWeb.
Major layoffs at Softbank funded companies:
Also, Softbank started ghosting startups:
SoftBank’s reasons for its reversals are unclear.
- Some sources believe a driving factor is SoftBank’s struggle to raise Vision Fund 2. In short, outside money still hasn’t materialized.
- Vision Fund 2 so far has done five deals, although that all appears to be via SoftBank Group’s $38 billion commitment to the fund.
- They also think the WeWork debacle played a role, creating a sort of shell shock in Tokyo.
Things are going from bad to worse at SoftBank. Since January 2019, Vision Fund firms have laid off over 10,700 employees — more than 2x the workforce of Twitter.
From the main man Prof. Galloway
Cheap but controversial Japanese internet and tech stock
Thought this was a very interesting read:
Softbank just invested $440 million in challenger OakNorth which provides funding for businesses. I’m a fan of OakNorth but seeing them put that much money into a relatively obscure company & as part of a round that only included one other investor blew my mind slightly.
Meanwhile here’s the FT’s Lex team’s comments on SoftBank’s latest share buyback -
Record buyback may be an attempt to appease investors for increased risks
Any idea if its possible to add Softbank in the near future?
We don’t have a timescale for this right now I’m afraid, keep an eye on the blog & this post for updates.
It’s worth mentioning that we’ve added Baillie Gifford Japan Trust (BGFD) to the app now -
Another does-what-it-says-on-the-tin trust. This trust, managed by the same firm behind Scottish Mortgage Trust, invest in a variety of enterprises in Japan, currently including Softbank, Rakuten and Sony.
quote from this blog post
Not perfect, but a 5% holding and they’re leveraged 11-17% which is good! Thanks Alex 
$130,000,000! Arghhh! 
Imagine the return if it had paid off!!
I think that’s what got them in trouble in the first place 
I’ll admit to not having analysed every detail of this, but the SoftBank earnings presentation is now online. 
I was thinking about Softbank this afternoon after reading a Boston Dynamics article. I would be interested in peoples view for the long term with Softbank, maybe with a new ceo or some change
And it doesn’t seem like Vision Fund 2 is arriving any time soon.
They got some cracking companies on their VF1, like PingAn Doctor, ZhongAn and others.
I just feel that they are massively over indexing on Uber, and that WeWork will remain a massive milestone around their next now all the fake-tech and New Age gloss around it has worn off and people started to price it as what it actually is - a property company with some fussball tables in the lobby.
Starlink competitor OneWeb may face bankruptcy
OneWeb, a SoftBank-backed competitor of Starlink, is also in the middle of launching its own global satellite constellation. But Bloomberg reported on Thursday that OneWeb is considering filing for bankruptcy, with the report saying the company is facing a cash crunch. OneWeb has raised $3.4 billion to to fund its satellite network, but CEO Adrián Steckel told CNBC in a February interview that the company “is always raising” money.