SoftBank and WeWork Are as Bad as Each Other
There are many similarities between how the two companies behave. Masayoshi Son has helped create a real estate monster that could do him harm.
We’re in this together.
Photographer: Michael Nagle/Bloomberg
SoftBank Group Corp. is having second thoughts about whether WeWork Cos. Inc. should go public just yet. Having valued the heavily loss-making office space provider at as much as $47 billion, Masayoshi Son’s affiliates are doubtless reluctant to write down their more than $10 billion investment — something they’d have to consider once there’s an observable price for the shares.
WeWork, though, is apparently determined to press ahead with the listing in defiance of its chief benefactor, Reuters reports. Either way, SoftBank and its $100 billion Vision Fund will have to face reality one day. By writing an 11-figure check to a startup with no discernible path to profitability, Son may turn out to be the Victor Frankenstein of the cheap-money era. He’s helped create a monster that could do him serious harm.