Softbank Regrets WeWork Purchase After Posting Biggest Quarterly Loss

Softbank’s billionaire founder Masayoshi Son now regrets purchasing WeWork from its beleaguered founder Adam Neumann. The company posted a group-wide net loss of $6.4 billion, or $9 billion for the quarter. A majority of that loss came from WeWork, where the Japanese conglomerate took a hit of $4.7 billion.

“My own investment judgment was really bad. I regret it in many ways,” Son said on November 5, according to the Wall Street Journal.

In January 2019, WeWork had a valuation of $47 billion, but by September, their IPO estimate dropped to $15 to $20 billion, according to Dow Jones Venture Capital and the Wall Street Journal. In October, Softbank offered the startup $8 billion.

WeWork never went public. The curtain was pulled back on the company and its founder, chief executive Adam Neumann. For the first time, investors saw how much money WeWork was losing and the questionable business decisions Neumann made, like hiring family members, no future of creating of profit and having WeWork pay him $5.9 million after he trademarked the name, to name a few.