SoftBank Group CEO Masayoshi Son has spent the past 18 months fundamentally revamping the company he created almost 40 years ago. In 2019, Son reportedly lost over $130 million with his Bitcoin investment, according to the Wall Street Journal. Then Softbank’s telecoms arm became a member of the Japanese Security Token Association. Faced with widespread doubts about the company’s strategy, Son has answered his critics with stellar performance.
In April 2019, SoftBank was the largest investor in the WeWork IPO deal. However, SoftBank asked WeWork to shelve its initial public offering because WeWork advisors were still evaluating investor appetite for the IPO valuation, which was between $15 billion and $20 billion. Overall, the deal gave SoftBank a black eye, causing enormous, widespread criticism of Son for not paying enough attention to WeWork’s business model and corporate-governance practices. Son’s reputation was in question as one of the world’s great investors, and just maybe the nearly $100 billion SoftBank Vision Fund, the world’s largest venture fund, was simply too big for him to manage.
In February 2020, Son was pressed to buy back stock as a way to fix the problem. SoftBank took the request seriously. Son began to sell assets to raise cash to buy back stock to close the 50%-plus gap between the stock’s market capitalization and its underlying net asset value. SoftBank bought back $17.9 billion of stock and paid down $9.2 billion in debt. The result, SoftBank has a more rigorous approach to investing, a clearer mission, an increased conviction and Son reclaiming his status as one of the world smartest investors.
