SoftBank’s problems aren’t so surprising if you understand this one thing about the company
Throughout the manic phase of SoftBank and the Vision fund there was almost no mention of the fact that at the start of this century Masayoshi Son was the richest person in the word:
"But Son’s fairytale didn’t last long. After the dot-com bubble burst, his company Softbank’s shares plunged 75 percent in two months and was 93 percent lower by the end of 2000.
The business almost went bankrupt and Son ended up losing USD 70 billion, the highest ever recorded financial loss for a person in history."
—MoneyControl, October 13, 2017
We had a couple posts around the time of the above that touched on the craziness but not the past history:
SoftBank In Talks To Acquire U.S. Treasury
Sprint, T-Mobile Plunge: SoftBank Calling Off Merger, Will Use Cash to Buy Canada
See also semi-varience, after the jump.....
And today's story from Bloomberg, May 12, 2023:
Masayoshi Son is now personally on the hook for about $5.2 billion on side deals he set up at SoftBank Group Corp. to boost his compensation, after the Vision Fund venture capital arm capped a year of record losses.
The Vision Fund unit lost ¥297.5 billion ($2 billion) in the three months ended March, ending the fiscal year with a total loss of ¥4.3 trillion — its worst since Son proudly set up the business in 2017. The world’s largest technology investor reported dismal earnings despite a global rebound in equities, as it suffered losses on unlisted startups in its portfolio.
His unrealized losses widened by about $130 million from three months before, with most of the deficit linked to the Latin America fund. The founder and chief executive officer of SoftBank was down $5.1 billion on the same side deals through the December quarter.
Son, whose stake in SoftBank grew in recent months, also owns portions of the company’s key investment vehicles. While these holdings have sparked controversy due to corporate governance concerns, the Japanese billionaire has denied any conflict of interest.
Portfolio losses ratcheted up Son’s deficit to about $2.9 billion from his Vision Fund 2 interest, and $463 million at the Latin America fund, according to disclosures for the March quarter. His remaining deficit at SB Northstar was ¥246.9 billion ($1.8 billion). The debt totaled $5.2 billion, according to Bloomberg calculations based on company disclosures....
....MUCH MORE
