Earnings Season Delays, with the largest US tech companies already reporting second-quarter results. But often the most interesting results don’t come from your Amazons or Apples, but from smaller companies — and even those that aren’t traditional tech companies. SoftBank for example.
Today, the Japanese conglomerate and startup investing powerhouse reported income they were more than a little gloomy. SoftBank’s quarterly losses, worth about 3.2 trillion yen ($24.5 billion), were the largest in history, prompting the company to publish the following image on its website. investor presentation:
Image Credits: SoftBank investor presentation
They say that a picture is worth a thousand words. So what went wrong? How did SoftBank lose so much money? The Vision Fund, his two-pronged effort to put more than $100 billion to work in private companies. Let’s see what caused the damage.
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But before we do that, it’s worth noting that the Vision Fund has have already gone through a transition period. Things got a little tougher for businesses in the wake of the WeWork IPO fiasco, with profits becoming the watchword of its world. But that didn’t mean SoftBank stopped putting capital to work, nor was it immune to changing market conditions. Let’s see.
