MASAYOSHI SON, the founder of SoftBank, a Japanese telecoms firm turned tech investor, will not have had many more momentous days. First came the announcement of plans for a second Vision fund, whose expected capital contributions of $108bn will make it the largest private tech fund ever, surpassing even the almost $100bn ploughed into its predecessor.
Start with news of the second fund. The first one has already upended the usual assumptions of early-stage investing. Its scale is unprecedented: the next-largest VC funds marshal pots in the mere single-digit billions. Its speed has been striking; the Vision fund has splurged $70bn in under three years on stakes in Uber, WeWork, Arm and others. Investors have done well enough thus far: Mr Son claimed returns of 29% as of March 2019.
SoftBank itself will be the biggest contributor to the second fund: it promises to put in $38bn. That’s where the Sprint deal comes in. The merger is unwelcome news for American consumers, notwithstanding requirements for the two firms to divest assets and share spectrum with Dish, a satellite-TV provider. It still faces challenges on competition grounds from state attorneys-general.
Sceptics of the megafund model still have plenty of ammunition. It is too early to judge the success of the first fund, which runs until 2029; those who think that SoftBank has been inflating tech valuations will be closely watching the success of WeWork’s initial public offering, which is expected in September. The governance worries that surround the first fund are unlikely to be quelled by SoftBank’s still-larger stake in the second.
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I m wondering who will audited That ! Had Flavor of Maddoff Plan
I never doubt anything he does. Study Son's methods, even employed in the most minute way, they work. He says to dump technology (stock) that is waning every five years, and buy the newest on horizon. By that standard, oil & gas are 40 years over their COMPLETELY RANCID date.