SoftBank’s WeWork Bailout Draws Investor Concern

Re:SoftBank’s WeWork Bailout Draws Investor Concern by JumpCrisscross on Saturday October 26, 2019 @10:54AM (#21364028)

> SoftBank had told investors and credit-rating companies that it planned to make big investments principally from the Vision Fund, not its own balance sheet. It said that except for the capital that the group had contributed, it wouldn’t be on the hook for any losses in the fund.

The WeWork bailout throws that fundamental premise into question and makes it harder to calculate SoftBank’s liabilities and obligations, said a person who watches the credit markets closely.

This looks bad both ways. From a SoftBank investor's perspective, Masa is bailing out the Saudis. From a Vision Fund investor's perspective, SoftBank is buying for $8 billion what the former were sold at $47.

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Re:SoftBank’s WeWork Bailout Draws Investor Concern by mathattack on Saturday October 26, 2019 @11:30AM (#21364239)

This is the same problem when VCs invest in the same company across many funds. It’s hard to get precise on fairness and pricing.

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Re:SoftBank’s WeWork Bailout Draws Investor Concern by tahdig on Saturday October 26, 2019 @11:33AM (#21364256)

> Masa is bailing out the Saudis.

Can you elaborate? genuinely interested to understand, isn't he investing more Saudi money in potentially doomed unicorn?

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Re:SoftBank’s WeWork Bailout Draws Investor Concern by ecf on Saturday October 26, 2019 @12:38PM (#21364665)

The Saudi empire is built on oil, which won’t last forever. They are desperately trying to diversify by throwing money at bad ideas in a way that makes VCs look like toddlers playing with Monopoly money.

Eventually, a lot of those fail and the Saudis want their money back.

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Re:SoftBank’s WeWork Bailout Draws Investor Concern by mschuster91 on Saturday October 26, 2019 @02:35PM (#21365378)

> Eventually, a lot of those fail and the Saudis want their money back

I'd wager that in 20 years the Saudi regime doesn't exist anymore, Softbank/Vision Fund or not. They're going to crash hard, the youth worldwide does not want dictatorships and theocracies any more and the old guards are literally dying off.

Besides, the Saudis (and other Gulf states) have lost more money to way stupider efforts than wework, for their scale wework is chump change.

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Re:SoftBank’s WeWork Bailout Draws Investor Concern by agency on Saturday October 26, 2019 @12:35PM (#21364637)

This latest bailout is coming directly from SoftBank, not the Vision Fund.

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