Rakuten sells entire Pinterest stake as it offloads tech holdings

Feb 14, 2020 | News On Japan

Feb 14, 2020 (Nikkei) - Japanese e-commerce conglomerate Rakuten on Thursday said it sold $1.4 billion worth of shares in its technology holdings, including its entire stake in U.S. social networking service Pinterest, underlying growing concerns about overvaluations in the sector.

The move came as Rakuten reported an operating loss of 40 billion yen ($364 million) in the October-December quarter. Profits at its financial technology business were offset by impairments in its ride-hailing investments including Spain's Cabify.

The loss at Rakuten, which follows a 103 billion yen write-down of the company's stake in U.S. ride-hailer Lyft during the previous quarter, highlights the widespread impact of cooling tech valuations.

SoftBank Group on Wednesday reported another loss at its Vision Fund investment business, which bought stakes in some of the world's biggest privately held tech companies. Its CEO, Masayoshi Son, said he is pushing back plans for a $108 billion Vision Fund 2.

Rakuten said it unloaded the interest in Pinterest in the fourth quarter. Pinterest, which went public in April last year, saw its shares slide at the end of last year although they recovered over the past few weeks. Since Rakuten was an early investor, it said its return on investment was 382%.

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