Over the past two years, Mr. Son has been on a new roller coaster. The pandemic initially caused his SoftBank investments in tech giants to sink, skyrocket, and then crash again. Companies like his Coupang, a South Korean e-commerce company, and his DoorDash, a food delivery app, surged on initial offers, but then plummeted.
Moreover, the crackdown on China’s tech sector has slashed the value of SoftBank’s huge portfolio of Chinese companies. In response, SoftBank quietly sold most of its Alibaba stake. His early $20 million investment in the Chinese e-commerce giant was a huge success, once accounting for almost 60% of SoftBank’s net asset value.
At last year’s all-time high, Son’s Vision Fund — the original Vision Fund, a second smaller Vision Fund 2, and a recent Latin American addition to the portfolio — is valued at more than ¥7 trillion ($52 billion). I grew up. ). By the end of June, however, the fund had given up almost all of the profits it had made in its entire history. Since March, the value of the Vision Fund’s listed stock has fallen 31%, according to Son.
SoftBank has also been hit by the yen’s depreciation over the past year, which has pushed up the cost of its dollar-denominated debt.
Recent losses and new investment directions will likely require the company to make layoffs, Mr. Son said, adding: “We may need to significantly reduce the number of people in the Vision Fund.”
Son said it is also considering the sale of asset manager Fortress Investment Group, which it acquired in 2017 for more than $3 billion.
Following the announcement of financial results, SoftBank announced Buy back up to 400 billion yen ($3 billion) of treasury stock. The announcement follows his decision to buy back 1 trillion yen of his own shares last November. SoftBank’s stock rose slightly in Tokyo on Monday, after he’s lost more than 16% in the past 12 months, roughly in line with the Nasdaq index.
