SoftBank’s $100 billion Vision Fund is surely the most-scrutinized in the world, and for good reason. Over the past three years, Softbank founder Masayoshi Son has made a dizzying number of huge, bold bets—88, to be precise—at huge, bold valuations. Things haven’t gone exactly as planned. First, there was Uber, which the Vision Fund backed late, leaving it hundreds of millions underwater. And then WeWork, into which SoftBank has pumped more than $10 billion since 2017, and which cratered since it withdrew its much-maligned IPO plan following the sloppy exit of its self-centered, self-dealing founder, Adam Neumann. A “tough time,” Masa concedes to the group. The previous day, he had given a longer explanation to Forbes privately: “We paid too much valuation for WeWork, and we did too much believe in the entrepreneur. But I think even with WeWork, we’re now confident that we put in new management, a new plan, and we’re going to turn it around and make a decent return.”
When it comes to Masa, no one made more riding the dot-com bubble 20 years ago, with the likes of Yahoo and E-Trade; no one lost more, either (99 percent of SoftBank’s market cap, to be exact). His fortune vanished, but his vision was unblurred, and he earned billions back (his current net worth: $16.6 billion). “In the beginning of the internet, I was criticized the same way,” he says. “Even more so than now.
“Tactically, I’ve made regrets,” he continues. “But strategically, I am unchanged. Vision-wise? Unchanged.”
Can this long term perspective overcome and survive all the doubts that Masa and Softbank are facing? Read the full profile on Forbes: https://www.forbes.com/sites/alexkonrad/2020/04/05/exclusive-interview-masayoshi-son-talks-wework-vision-fund-softbank/#2ed1b1717f41
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