7 ms·

This is your annual reminder that Masa Son once lost $70B

by neural_thing 7y ago

ekianjo 7y ago
And that he is far from being the genius investor the Japanese media tries to make him
arcticbull 7y ago
I suddenly feel better about some of my underperforming assets lol
semiotagonal 7y ago
I believe Son is underwater on Uber as well, and if Slack falls somewhat below $10, would be eating a loss even there. https://www.cnbc.com/2019/09/07/uber-wework-and-slack-public-valuations-show-softbank-vision-flaw.html https://www.cnbc.com/2019/09/07/uber-wework-and-slack-public...
- deleted 7y ago
  [deleted]
threeseed 7y ago
And is now worth $23B. So I would assume he knows a little about business.
- natrik 7y ago
  I'd argue that assumption, [correlation of: current net worth -> knowledge about business], is flawed logically.
  - threeseed 7y ago
    You do understand how he made that money right ? Knowledge about business -> Current net worth
    - deleted 7y ago
      [deleted]
- deleted 7y ago
  [deleted]
- rgbrenner 7y ago
  His entire net worth can be accounted for with Softbank's investment of $20m in Alibaba in 1999. That's now worth ~$110B... and he has a 21% stake in softbank. Remove that.. and he's at 0 or even negative. Is that luck or skill?
  - perl4ever 7y ago
    Reminds me of Bill Ackman and General Growth Properties.
    - Nadge 7y ago
      In what way, please? I only know about Ackman through his Don Quixote-esque battle with Herbalife. What happened with GGP?
      - perl4ever 7y ago
        I only had the general impression in passing that GGP was his big success that gave him the resources to engage the more recent nonsense. I first heard of him in connection with Valeant more than Herbalife. It's like, maybe the order in which you have your life experiences is everything.
- perl4ever 7y ago
  Well, you can infer that, and people do often infer that from losing a lot of money and then coming back. But it could be just one-in-a-billion luck. https://xkcd.com/1827/ https://xkcd.com/1827/
qeternity 7y ago
What’s this in reference to?
- pkaye 7y ago
  He lost a lot in the dotcom collapse around 2000. https://dealbook.nytimes.com/2010/12/13/a-key-figure-in-the-future-of-yahoo/ https://dealbook.nytimes.com/2010/12/13/a-key-figure-in-the-...
  - kamyarg 7y ago
    To be precise: > ... having the distinction of losing the most money in history (approximately $70bn during the dot com crash of 2000). * https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Masayoshi_Son https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Masayoshi_Son
furyofantares 7y ago
Right after making 70B? I don't think this quip makes any sense. It's like the reverse of a gambler telling you how much they made without telling you how much they lost. Edit: For clarity, I think if you want to ask how much he made/lost in the dotcom boom, you have to compare his worth before the boom to his worth after the crash. Not his worth at the peak of the boom to after the crash. If you think that's wrong I'm interested to hear why.

This is your annual reminder that Masa Son once lost $70B

ekianjo 7y ago

And that he is far from being the genius investor the Japanese media tries to make him

arcticbull 7y ago

I suddenly feel better about some of my underperforming assets lol

semiotagonal 7y ago

I believe Son is underwater on Uber as well, and if Slack falls somewhat below $10, would be eating a loss even there. https://www.cnbc.com/2019/09/07/uber-wework-and-slack-public-valuations-show-softbank-vision-flaw.html https://www.cnbc.com/2019/09/07/uber-wework-and-slack-public...

deleted 7y ago
[deleted]

threeseed 7y ago

And is now worth $23B. So I would assume he knows a little about business.

natrik 7y ago
I'd argue that assumption, [correlation of: current net worth -> knowledge about business], is flawed logically.
- threeseed 7y ago
  You do understand how he made that money right ? Knowledge about business -> Current net worth
  - deleted 7y ago
    [deleted]
deleted 7y ago
[deleted]
rgbrenner 7y ago
His entire net worth can be accounted for with Softbank's investment of $20m in Alibaba in 1999. That's now worth ~$110B... and he has a 21% stake in softbank. Remove that.. and he's at 0 or even negative. Is that luck or skill?
- perl4ever 7y ago
  Reminds me of Bill Ackman and General Growth Properties.
  - Nadge 7y ago
    In what way, please? I only know about Ackman through his Don Quixote-esque battle with Herbalife. What happened with GGP?
    - perl4ever 7y ago
      I only had the general impression in passing that GGP was his big success that gave him the resources to engage the more recent nonsense. I first heard of him in connection with Valeant more than Herbalife. It's like, maybe the order in which you have your life experiences is everything.
perl4ever 7y ago
Well, you can infer that, and people do often infer that from losing a lot of money and then coming back. But it could be just one-in-a-billion luck. https://xkcd.com/1827/ https://xkcd.com/1827/

qeternity 7y ago

What’s this in reference to?

pkaye 7y ago
He lost a lot in the dotcom collapse around 2000. https://dealbook.nytimes.com/2010/12/13/a-key-figure-in-the-future-of-yahoo/ https://dealbook.nytimes.com/2010/12/13/a-key-figure-in-the-...
- kamyarg 7y ago
  To be precise: > ... having the distinction of losing the most money in history (approximately $70bn during the dot com crash of 2000). * https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Masayoshi_Son https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Masayoshi_Son

furyofantares 7y ago

Right after making 70B? I don't think this quip makes any sense. It's like the reverse of a gambler telling you how much they made without telling you how much they lost. Edit: For clarity, I think if you want to ask how much he made/lost in the dotcom boom, you have to compare his worth before the boom to his worth after the crash. Not his worth at the peak of the boom to after the crash. If you think that's wrong I'm interested to hear why.