SoftBank to invest over $1B in German payment company Wirecard

Re:SoftBank to invest over $1B in German payment company Wir... by pavlov on Wednesday April 24, 2019 @04:08PM (#19742126)

As a German unicorn, Wirecard seems to be enjoying a certain national handicap which is absent from the British paper’s digging.

A Munich prosecutor threatened investigation into FT and Wirecard was happy to double up on threatening journalists, yet nothing seems to be actually happening. This strengthens the impression that Wirecard is locally protected.

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Re:SoftBank to invest over $1B in German payment company Wir... by Tomte on Wednesday April 24, 2019 @04:12PM (#19742153)

Wirecard has pretty much zero mindshare in Germany. Almost nobody has ever heard of it, the only reason why a few people have heard of it is that they are one of the Apple Pay partners.

I really doubt there is much local protection. Wirecard is no VW.

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Re:SoftBank to invest over $1B in German payment company Wir... by dx034 on Thursday April 25, 2019 @08:18AM (#19747255)

German regulators are known to be on the stricter side compared to other EU countries and Banks/Financials aren't really popular in Germany anyway. So I doubt that this plays any role in the investigation.

But so far, the FT allegations didn't prove anything and coordinated short selling ahead of the release of the articles appears suspicious. On the other hand, the FT doesn't back down so there should be some merit to their stories.

Wirecard will present an external audit report these days about the allegations that Softbank will probably already have seen. The news about the investment probably indicates that the report isn't too bad for Wirecard.

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