Softbank just amazingly posted a $7 billion loss in the most recent quarter, as market mayhem has wreaked havoc on its tech-heavy investment portfolio. That’s a huge number; and it shows the magnitude of how dramatically things have gone wrong for it this year.
My takeaway from the story is that Softbank will be ‘trimming the flowers’ — i.e. selling a lot of good companies in order to offset its losses. It has committed to playing defense and a stock buyback until the global macro improves, and is still looking for the right time to bring its $32 billion acquisition of ARM back into the public markets.
