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Softbank's Imminent Writedown: The Folly That Was Taking Saudi Money [video]

24 points by lawrenceyan 8y ago

PaulHoule 8y ago
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S3hA9cjBBwM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S3hA9cjBBwM
sremani 8y ago
Nothing particularly about Saudi money, its more about consequences of cheap money on Softbank and by extension Silicon Valley "high valuation - no profit" jig being up by the double threat of high interest rates and low/no growth.
new299 8y ago
This two minute video seems to say very little. That SoftBank is “investing for a future in about 300 years time when we’ll all have chips in everyday objects like streetlights and refrigerators”. And that there’s going to be a global economic slowdown in 2019, and this will be a problem for Softbanks vision fund valuation. Doesn’t say anything about taking Saudi money being bad that I can tell... Also, there are already many chips in streetlights and refrigerators... seems like a very basic error...
- ekianjo 8y ago
  > The rest of the video says there is going to be a global economic slowdown in 2019, and this will be a problem for Softbanks vision fund valuation. Doesn’t say anything about taking Saudi money being bad that I can tell... You need to have a clickbaity headline! Add some Saudis, Russians, Chinese depending on what trends up now to generate more views.
ENOTTY 8y ago
The news I got out of the video was the debt-based structure of the fund and the effects of that on the fund with imminent writedowns.
Traster 8y ago
This is just rubbish. Firstly, my fridge has a chip in it today, so what the hell that's got to do with 300 years in the future I have no idea. Secondly, while individual valuations of companies may be higher than analysts thought that tells us nothing about whether the fund will face trouble. As for using leverage for the fund, whilst that is rare in VC funds, it's actually not that bad a move - as the video notes, the investors in the fund are people with investment horizons on the order of decades and deep pockets. This means they can weather a credit crunch or downturn much better than the average leveraged investor. Finally, the speculation on a slow down is just awful - yes! There could be a slow down, in fact over the life of a fund like this they're guaranteed to see a slow down at some point. That doesn't mean the fund is bad - all funds and companies will suffer in a slow down, but if you have a strong portfolio of companies heading into a slow down you're actually in a very good position to exploit weak competition and gain market dominance during the time other companies are struggling with layoffs and restructuring.

24 points by lawrenceyan 8y ago

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S3hA9cjBBwM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S3hA9cjBBwM

Nothing particularly about Saudi money, its more about consequences of cheap money on Softbank and by extension Silicon Valley "high valuation - no profit" jig being up by the double threat of high interest rates and low/no growth.

new299 8y ago

This two minute video seems to say very little. That SoftBank is “investing for a future in about 300 years time when we’ll all have chips in everyday objects like streetlights and refrigerators”. And that there’s going to be a global economic slowdown in 2019, and this will be a problem for Softbanks vision fund valuation. Doesn’t say anything about taking Saudi money being bad that I can tell... Also, there are already many chips in streetlights and refrigerators... seems like a very basic error...

ekianjo 8y ago
> The rest of the video says there is going to be a global economic slowdown in 2019, and this will be a problem for Softbanks vision fund valuation. Doesn’t say anything about taking Saudi money being bad that I can tell... You need to have a clickbaity headline! Add some Saudis, Russians, Chinese depending on what trends up now to generate more views.

ENOTTY 8y ago

The news I got out of the video was the debt-based structure of the fund and the effects of that on the fund with imminent writedowns.

Traster 8y ago

This is just rubbish. Firstly, my fridge has a chip in it today, so what the hell that's got to do with 300 years in the future I have no idea. Secondly, while individual valuations of companies may be higher than analysts thought that tells us nothing about whether the fund will face trouble. As for using leverage for the fund, whilst that is rare in VC funds, it's actually not that bad a move - as the video notes, the investors in the fund are people with investment horizons on the order of decades and deep pockets. This means they can weather a credit crunch or downturn much better than the average leveraged investor. Finally, the speculation on a slow down is just awful - yes! There could be a slow down, in fact over the life of a fund like this they're guaranteed to see a slow down at some point. That doesn't mean the fund is bad - all funds and companies will suffer in a slow down, but if you have a strong portfolio of companies heading into a slow down you're actually in a very good position to exploit weak competition and gain market dominance during the time other companies are struggling with layoffs and restructuring.