Softbank posted a $23.4 billion loss in quarterly loss, as the global market sell-off spread to tech stocks and shredded valuations at its Vision Fund unit. A Japanese giant posted a $12 billion quarterly profit in August 2020, and the announcement came two years after it posted a $12 billion quarterly profit.
Softbank s Vision Fund reported a loss of 2.93 trillion Japanese yen $21.68 billion during the quarter that ended in June. SoftBank reported an 820 billion yen foreign exchange loss due to the weaker Japanese Yen.
The loss is the biggest in our corporate history, and we take it very seriously, according to Masayoshi Son, founder and CEO of SoftBank. Son said there are too many to count when asked what lessons he learned from the experience. SoftBank's Vision Fund was founded in 2017 and invests in tech startups and high-growth companies. Shares of its portfolio companies ranging from South Korean e-commerce firm Coupang to DoorDash were hit hard in the second quarter of the year.
Son said back in May that the company would go into defense mode and be more conservative with the pace of investments after posting a record 3.5 trillion Japanese yen loss at the investment unit for the last fiscal year. Son plans to cut staff at the Vision Fund, but he said there was no sacred areas. SoftBank, founded in 1981 by Masayoshi Son in September, is a multinational telecommunications and Internet corporation focused on broadband, fixed-line telecommunications, e-commerce, internet, technology services, finance, media and marketing, and other businesses. Softbank is the sixth-largest telephone operating company with a total revenue of $74.7 billion. The company has invested in a lot of startups, including Uber.
Softbank Vision Fund has stakes in the following companies: Arm Holdings, Fortress Investment Group, Boston Dynamics, Sprint 85%, Alibaba 29.5% Yahoo Japan 48.17% Brightstar 87.1% Uber 15% Didi Chuxing ca. 30% Renren 42.9% InMobi 45% Hike 25.8% Snapdeal ca. 50% of Paytm is ca. 20% OYO 42% Ping An Insurance 7.41% 6 Slack Technologies ca. WeWork ca. 5% 80% ZhongAn Online P&C Insurance 5% Compass ca. 22% AUTO 1 Group ca. 20% Wag 45% of Katerra ca. 28% of Cruise Automation are employed in the U.S. 19.6% ParkJockey 7 Tokopedia Indonesia and many more.