softbank

The mystery player behind the unprecedented summer-long rally in tech stocks appears to be the colorful billionaire CEO of Japanese conglomerate Softbank. Masayoshi Son, known for making big plays in tech giants like Alibaba and Uber, has spent billions of dollars buying options on individual tech stocks starting in the spring, according to multiple reports …

A Japanese supercomputer built with technology from Arm Ltd, whose chip designs power most of the world’s smartphones, has taken the top spot among the world’s most powerful systems, displacing one powered by IBM chips. The Fugaku supercomputer, a system jointly developed by Japanese research institute RIKEN and Fujitsu in Kobe, Japan, took the highest …

SoftBank Group is launching a $100 million fund to invest in “companies led by founders and entrepreneurs of color,” in the latest corporate action as protests roil the US. Described as SoftBank’s bid to improve diversity, “we have to put money behind it, set plans, and hold ourselves accountable,” SoftBank chief operating officer Marcelo Claure, …

SoftBank Vision Fund’s head, Rajeev Misra, saw his total pay for the past business year more than double to 1.6 billion yen ($14.8 million), even as the fund’s underperformance pushed SoftBank to a record $13 billion operating loss. The figure was second only to remuneration for SoftBank Group Chief Operating Officer Marcelo Claure, which rose …

The coronavirus has claimed some of SoftBank’s “unicorns” as casualties — and its billionaire CEO used a fantasy-driven slide presentation to illustrate the problem. The Japanese investment giant reported an $18 billion loss for its Vision Fund Monday after its buzzy “unicorn” tech startups like Uber and WeWork fell into what CEO Masayoshi Son called …

Billionaire Alibaba founder Jack Ma on on Monday resigned from SoftBank’s board in what is the latest departure by a high-profile ally of CEO Masayoshi Son. SoftBank didn’t give a reason for Ma’s resignation, but it came the same day that SoftBank’s giant Vision Fund reported a staggering $18 billion annual operating loss — the …

SoftBank warned investors that it expects to report a massive loss this year, thanks in part to the coronavirus wreaking havoc on already-struggling investments like WeWork. The Japanese conglomerate said in a statement that its famed $100 billion Vision Fund will see an operating loss of $12.5 billion for the fiscal year, its third consecutive …

WeWork has sued SoftBank after the Japanese conglomerate said last week that it’s backing out of a $3 billion offer for shares in the struggling office-sharing startup. In the lawsuit, which was widely expected after the tender was yanked last week, a special committee on the board of WeWork’s parent We Co. alleged that SoftBank …

Shared-office operator WeWork told investors on Thursday the $4.4 billion in cash and cash commitments it had at year-end 2019 is enough to execute its five-year plan and manage the challenges posed by the coronavirus crisis. WeWork, whose losses more than doubled to $1.25 billion as of the third quarter of 2019, told bond investors …

SoftBank Group is looking to raise an additional $10 billion to help its first Vision Fund support portfolio companies hit by the Chinese virus pandemic, Bloomberg reported here on Thursday, citing people with knowledge of the matter. The Japanese technology conglomerate has reached out to outside investors for $5 billion in funds, which will be …