SoftBank Vision Fund lost $18B, so it's trying to sell its T-Mobile shares
"Into the valley of the coronavirus..." Where SoftBank's founder/CEO Masayoshi Son said some of his beloved tech unicorns had fallen. The Japanese tech and telecom investment giant posted a record $18B operating loss for its Vision Fund — almost $10B of those losses came from the plunged values of its Uber and WeWork investments (WeWork dropped from $47B value to $2.9B in a year).
- SoftBank revealed its depressing results in a slideshow — the first 10 slides are dedicated to showcasing everything in the world that coronavirus ruined (complete with stock images of a sad chef).
- SoftBank is under pressure from activist investor Elliott Management (aka the most aggro fund on Wall Street) to salvage the situation — now SoftBank is aiming to sell $41B of its own investments to get cash.
"Can I interest you in some T-Mobile shares?"... What SoftBank is asking at its big tech yard sale. It's reportedly in talks to sell its T-Mobile shares to German carrier Deutsche Telekom. Currently, Deutsche owns a 43% stake in T-Mobile, Softbank owns 24%, and common stockholders like us own 33%.
When you're broke, you sell your valuables... Companies do the same. Under different circumstances, SoftBank probably wouldn't be selling its T-Mobile shares. After its recent merger with Sprint, T-Mobile is the #3 carrier out of the new "Big Three" in the US (after AT&T and Verizon) — and the stock is up 24% in the past six months. But the corona-conomy left Softbank with few choices — and it might have to sell other holdings to make a comeback.