SoftBank

Masayoshi Son built SoftBank from Japanese software distribution into a telecom operator and then into the world's largest venture investor through the $100 billion Vision Fund, of which Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund supplied $45 billion. A $20 million cheque to Alibaba in 2000 came to dominate the group's net asset value, and Son has repeatedly borrowed against listed holdings to fund new bets. Readers get an extreme study in leverage, concentration and the marking of private portfolio companies, with WeWork the clearest failure at over $10 billion written off. Lionel Barber wrote the full biography, Alok Sama gives a dealmaker's inside view, an early authorised life covers the Japanese years, and the two WeWork books show what Vision Fund money did at portfolio level.

5 books