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Oh my, it just keeps getting worse. Softbank invested $375 million in a robot pizza business. Send in the unicorns...
SoftBank-backed Zume is laying off 360 employees, representing about half its staff, and shuttering its robotic pizza-making and delivery business.
If it weren’t for Alibaba, Masayoshi Son would have been bankrupted.
WeWork is a real estate company that offers co-working spaces for rent. Their M.O. is the most common of all real estate business models. They lease property from landowners, transform it to create a community feel, and sublease it by the day or month to startups, freelancers, companies and corporations in need of working space.
I suppose it could work, but then why wouldn't the actual property owners do it?
My only solace is that they are burning repatriated House of Saud oil money,...
Other highlights include holding a gun to Uber's head to force them to take late round investments. SoftBank (SFTBF), the Japanese conglomerate, has reached a deal to invest more than $7 billion in Uber for a 15% stake in the ride-hailing startup, according to sources familiar with the deal. The vast majority of that investment comes from SoftBank buying up shares held by existing Uber shareholders, including employees and earlier investors. SoftBank on Thursday completed a tender offer to buy those shares at a discounted valuation of $48 billion, according to sources.SoftBank is also investing $1.25 billion in new capital in Uber at its most recent $70 billion valuation. As CNNMoney has previously reported, this latter investment was contingent on SoftBank getting enough Uber insiders to sell for it to gain a stake of at least 14%. Uber's current market cap is hoveing around $50 billion. SoftBank has major investments in all the rideshare players; it's not clear if any of them are profitable. The Saudi's appear reluctant to give SoftBank any more investment capital for their Vision II Fund. My gut says SoftBank is going to be one of the bagholders once this bubble pops. YMMV.