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SoftBank Reveals $6.5B Loss from Uber, WeWork Turmoil

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31–40 of 83 posts

Re: SoftBank Reveals $6.5B Loss from Uber, WeWork Turmoil

#31
post #9

It seems pretty clear that Softbank were badly misvaluing We and Uber. The second they hit the public markets suddenly Softbank could no longer sustain their paper valuations which is causing this loss. It's kind of funny that Softbank can mark its own homework on this - they buy the company and then because the investment isn't liquid they can basically choose any valuation they want for the companies they own. It'l…

Arm is a de facto monopoly, WeWork and Uber are not

Arm is already freaking out about RISC-V, because some large companies (Western Digital, Nvidia, Alibaba, etc) have started preferring using the RISC-V ISA over Arm. Even Google's recent OpenTitan uses a RISC-V processor, when the company's own proprietary "Titan" predecessor used Arm Cortex-M3.

It probably won't be long now before SoftBank/Arm resorts to patent trolling RISC-V chip makers.

Re: SoftBank Reveals $6.5B Loss from Uber, WeWork Turmoil

#32
post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They invest in lots of crap companies: https://www.ft.com/content/25f76710-fbde-11e9-98fd-4d6c20050...

I don't think that FT is still a reputable company / source to quote.

How come?

Re: SoftBank Reveals $6.5B Loss from Uber, WeWork Turmoil

#33
post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Think you'd be surprised. One bad quarter for a guy that talks about 300 year timescale.

Who's this guy and where his money come from? If it's based on fossil fuel revenues seized by autocrats, please explain how his plan can be sustained for centuries.

NPR Planet Money podcast recently did an episode all about it:

https://www.npr.org/2019/10/04/767379358/episode-943-unicorn...

Re: SoftBank Reveals $6.5B Loss from Uber, WeWork Turmoil

#34
post #9

It seems pretty clear that Softbank were badly misvaluing We and Uber. The second they hit the public markets suddenly Softbank could no longer sustain their paper valuations which is causing this loss. It's kind of funny that Softbank can mark its own homework on this - they buy the company and then because the investment isn't liquid they can basically choose any valuation they want for the companies they own. It'l…

Arm is a de facto monopoly, WeWork and Uber are not

Exactly. ARM's intellectual property (ie. CPUs) is used in more devices than Intel.

Re: SoftBank Reveals $6.5B Loss from Uber, WeWork Turmoil

#35
Other investors have been saying that SoftBank has been overpaying for years. It looks like they were right and you need to discount any SoftBank valuation by about 50%.

The SoftBank playbook has an even bigger negative impact on employees. They are granted options at an inflated price. When the stock collapses (Uber, WeWork, Wag) they lose more than others because most of the comp is in equity.

As an employee, I would stay far away from any SoftBank funded company.

Re: SoftBank Reveals $6.5B Loss from Uber, WeWork Turmoil

#37

Other investors have been saying that SoftBank has been overpaying for years. It looks like they were right and you need to discount any SoftBank valuation by about 50%. The SoftBank playbook has an even bigger negative impact on employees. They are granted options at an inflated price. When the stock collapses (Uber, WeWork, Wag) they lose more than others because most of the comp is in equity. As an employee, I wou…

And, of course, they _paid_ for that comp (exercising of stock options) in cash.

Re: SoftBank Reveals $6.5B Loss from Uber, WeWork Turmoil

#38
post #36

Side note, is a Bloomberg subscription worth it? I’m looking to get a subscription and a lot of their articles are great. Especially ones by Matt Levine.

You can subscribe to his newsletter and receive them daily to your inbox. I don't think he writes any articles outside of Money Stuff.

Re: SoftBank Reveals $6.5B Loss from Uber, WeWork Turmoil

#40
post #36

Side note, is a Bloomberg subscription worth it? I’m looking to get a subscription and a lot of their articles are great. Especially ones by Matt Levine.

You can subscribe to his newsletter and receive them daily to your inbox. I don't think he writes any articles outside of Money Stuff.

Thanks. Bloomberg has a $1.99 3 month subscription deal. I’ll try it for a few months and see for myself.
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