Son’s conglomerate has taken one blow after another since the implosion of WeWork’s initial public offering last year and SoftBank’s subsequent bailout. It bet heavily on sharing-economy start-ups, which allow people to split the use of offices or cars, but those investments have been particularly hard hit as the coronavirus pandemic curbs unnecessary human interaction.
(Apr 14): SoftBank Group Corp forecast a record 1.35 trillion yen ($17.7 billion) operating loss for the fiscal year ended in March, a sign of how badly Masayoshi Son’s bets on technology start-ups have been battered in recent months.
The Japanese company expects to record a 1.8 trillion yen loss from its Vision Fund and another 800 billion yen in losses from SoftBank’s own investments. It has written down the value of investments in companies, including office-rental startup WeWork and satellite operator OneWeb, which filed for bankruptcy last month. SoftBank’s shares fell as much as 4.2% to 4,025 yen in Tokyo on Tuesday.
