The vibe I'm getting from the FT and the WSJ is that SoftBank and Masayoshi Son are colossal idiots. That was the case since the WeWork IPO and even earlier (when the story about SoftBank funding competing startups came out). Does this mean that SoftBank is much worse than the rest of the finance industry? Or is it simply because they're based in Tokyo and don't have a PR team in New York and London that's as strong as their competitors?
Softbank is not financial neophyte for sure. See their long term option deal with Citi to sell their Yahoo stake a decade ago. Their investment in BABA is probably the most successful passive investment ever. But they are very aggressive so will also have a lot of failures. I get the feeling that they tried too hard to replicate their BABA success.
their BABA success is due to luck, but they won't admit it, and instead attempt to replicate it with "skill". This is what happens to people who aren't humble enough to know their success wasn't really due to their own abilities.
Masayoshi Son has made more money than any single individual in history... But only because he has lost so much, and just made it back. He's just volatility personified.
