SoftBank Posts $6.2B Quarterly Loss as Bankrupt WeWork Takes Toll on Bottom Line

The Japanese tech investor posted a gain in its Vision Fund thanks to offloading a chunk of its Arm shares to a subsidiary.

• SoftBank 9984 revealed it lost $6.2bn in the September quarter, largely the result of write-downs related to the just-announced bankruptcy of property-sharing firm WeWork. Adding to woes, ill-fated investments in sinking technology companies further dragged the bottom line to yet another loss, following a $3.3bn profit slump in Q2 and a crushing $32bn loss in Q1.
• The Japanese tech conglomerate, headed by Masayoshi Son, eked out a $140mn gain from its Vision Fund. The positive balance was mostly thanks to SoftBank’s sale of shares in chipmaker Arm, which it backed ahead of its $52bn IPO last month. Arm shares are down roughly 14% from their spectacular public market debut.
• More on the WeWork painful drain – SoftBank has lost over $14bn on its investments in the office-sharing company. This is by far the worst-performing investment of Tokyo-based SoftBank. It did help WeWork founder Adam Neumann exit the company a billionaire after he walked away with more than $1bn in payouts.