Society

SoftBank's damage from Uber and WeWork could exceed $5 billion

Oct 09 (Japan Times) - Masayoshi Sonâ€™s startups have had a rough few months, from a botched initial public offering by WeWork to a sharp decline in shares of Uber Technologies Inc.

Now analysts are beginning to calculate that the damage for Sonâ€™s SoftBank Group Corp. will likely reach into the billions of dollars.

Mitsubishi UFJ Morgan Stanley Securities Co. cut its profit estimate for SoftBankâ€™s Vision Fund, its main investment vehicle, by Â¥580 billion ($5.4 billion) to an operating loss of Â¥367.6 billion for the September quarter, citing declines in the stock prices of Uber and Slack Technologies Inc. and the withdrawn WeWork IPO. It also reduced SoftBank Groupâ€™s fiscal year operating profit by the same amount to Â¥1.01 trillion.

Son is going through a particularly rocky stretch after repositioning SoftBank from a telecom operator into an investment conglomerate, with stakes in scores of startups around the world.

He built a personal fortune of about $14 billion with strategic bets on companies such as China e-commerce giant Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. But the recent troubles have weighed on SoftBankâ€™s shares, pushing them down about 30 percent from their peak earlier this year as investors grow skittish about startup valuations.

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