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Tim Culpan

SoftBank Needs a Different IPO After WeWork Slip

A cadence of quarterly offerings are crucial to SoftBank Vision Fund maintaining strong earnings.

Softbank’s Masayoshi Son better line up another unicorn to take WeWork’s place. — Softbank’s Masayoshi Son better line up another unicorn to take WeWork’s place.
Photographer: Tomohiro Ohsumi/Getty Images

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September 17, 2019, 9:30 AM UTC

SoftBank Group Corp. and its Vision Fund need another win. And they need it fast.

With news that U.S. rental office company WeWork – formally known as The We Company – looks set to delay its IPO, we can see just how dependent SoftBank supremo Masayoshi Son’s empire was on this one exit to keep the Japanese company’s hit machine ticking along.