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And yet not as astounding as peoples' desire to see him succeed. Actions should have consequences. Keep in mind that this is a man with a history of making eno

And yet not as astounding as peoples' desire to see him succeed. Actions should have consequences. Keep in mind that this is a man with a history of making enormous bets and losing, having previously lost $70 billion out of $78 billion of his own assets in the dotcom crash. This is other peoples' money he's doing this with. There's that old saying about fool me once...

totalZero 6y ago
He's also the guy who saved Vodafone KK. And Sprint. Let's acknowledge that he has pulled off a few magic tricks in his career.
- busterarm 6y ago
  Were those success stories of actual benefit to society? Both companies had notoriously terrible business practices and were for the most part loathed by their own customers. In the '90s, Sprint was somewhat famous for rampant billing errors to the tune of 4 or 5 digits and then fighting people in court for it.
  - totalZero 6y ago
    1) You're moving the goalposts. First you said he was not a winner, now you're saying his wins don't benefit society. 2) The challenges faced by those two businesses make their restoration an even greater achievement.
    - busterarm 6y ago
      I'm not moving any goalposts, I'm saying that's a shitty measure of success. Keeping a company from failing is not a virtuous act.
sergefaguet 6y ago
He made $200bn on Alibaba. He is an extremely successful investor who survived many crises over very many years.
- busterarm 6y ago
  And yet SoftBank is still carrying all of that debt it has. Softbank has more debt on its books due in the next three years than many countries do period. Its current debts in that period are roughly the yearly GDP of Iceland. Continuously risking it all is not investing, it's gambling. Normal people and normal companies can't invest the way he does. Nobody reasonable has that risk tolerance. If you were trading margin on like that, you'd get margin called before you even got started. Son can get away with what he does because he's risking the wealth of nations. SoftBank's debts are so big that they risk taking Japan and Saudi Arabia down with them. It's not that he's a savvy investor, it's that his clients have guns.
JumpCrisscross 6y ago
> This is other peoples' money he's doing this with It’s a bunch of Arab royalties’ money with some tech companies and employees to boot. Not a sympathetic bunch.

totalZero 6y ago

He's also the guy who saved Vodafone KK. And Sprint. Let's acknowledge that he has pulled off a few magic tricks in his career.

busterarm 6y ago
Were those success stories of actual benefit to society? Both companies had notoriously terrible business practices and were for the most part loathed by their own customers. In the '90s, Sprint was somewhat famous for rampant billing errors to the tune of 4 or 5 digits and then fighting people in court for it.
- totalZero 6y ago
  1) You're moving the goalposts. First you said he was not a winner, now you're saying his wins don't benefit society. 2) The challenges faced by those two businesses make their restoration an even greater achievement.
  - busterarm 6y ago
    I'm not moving any goalposts, I'm saying that's a shitty measure of success. Keeping a company from failing is not a virtuous act.

sergefaguet 6y ago

He made $200bn on Alibaba. He is an extremely successful investor who survived many crises over very many years.

busterarm 6y ago
And yet SoftBank is still carrying all of that debt it has. Softbank has more debt on its books due in the next three years than many countries do period. Its current debts in that period are roughly the yearly GDP of Iceland. Continuously risking it all is not investing, it's gambling. Normal people and normal companies can't invest the way he does. Nobody reasonable has that risk tolerance. If you were trading margin on like that, you'd get margin called before you even got started. Son can get away with what he does because he's risking the wealth of nations. SoftBank's debts are so big that they risk taking Japan and Saudi Arabia down with them. It's not that he's a savvy investor, it's that his clients have guns.

JumpCrisscross 6y ago

> This is other peoples' money he's doing this with It’s a bunch of Arab royalties’ money with some tech companies and employees to boot. Not a sympathetic bunch.