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I wonder if this is because of the SoftBank cash crunch. Or if it's just nobody has figured out how to make money with Boston Dynamics. Though if the 1 billion

I wonder if this is because of the SoftBank cash crunch. Or if it's just nobody has figured out how to make money with Boston Dynamics. Though if the 1 billion sale price is true, maybe flipping BD is the only way to make money with it.

sradman 6y ago
From the article: > In early November, Bloomberg first reported that Hyundai was in talks to acquire Boston Dynamics from Tokyo-based SoftBank Group. The Japanese conglomerate is selling off non-core business assets after it was hit hard by a series of soured bets, including WeWork and Uber. In September 2020, Softbank sold Arm to NVIDIA for $40 billion.
- stingrae 6y ago
  I wonder how much this has changed with the continued increase in stock values and new companies going public. Uber, Doordash, etc. aren't the losers that they appeared to be even just a couple months ago.
  - dragonelite 6y ago
    If one thing i have seen stock market != real world economics. You had a car rental go broke and its stock got pumped 500% or so after the fact.
    - stingrae 6y ago
      sure. But for Softbank, this current bump (which is think is artificial and going to pop) could allow for them to liquidate some of their positions (likely without making too much of a price disturbance) to allow for diversification.
      - itsoktocry 6y ago
        >to allow for diversification. I'm not sure that is or was ever in the plans for SoftBank. "Pump and dump" gets thrown around a lot, but hasn't that been their model? Get in as early your massive dollars allow, promote the hell outta the company, feed the tech/SV/VC ecosystem, cash out, repeat.
    - rtx 6y ago
      Stock market is real, what's fake is all the modelling they do in excel.
      - ASalazarMX 6y ago
        Stock market is real for the few privileged insiders, the rest of us have modest profits or even loses that pay for someone else's profits.
        marcusverus 6y ago
        Silliness. The market is effectively a free money machine for people who are capable of delaying gratification. The fact that most people are not capable of this is not the fault of the market. And, for the record, the rich aren't getting better returns than the rest of us--the S&P beats the vast majority of Hedge Funds, year after year. https://www.cnbc.com/2019/03/15/active-fund-managers-trail-the-sp-500-for-the-ninth-year-in-a-row-in-triumph-for-indexing.html https://www.cnbc.com/2019/03/15/active-fund-managers-trail-t...
        eckmLJE 6y ago
        Half of Americans own stocks at all, and the rich don't have all their money in hedge funds.
        XorNot 6y ago
        Anyone who can consistently beat the market with the their process doesn't stay in the public investment game for long - why would they? They turn into self-funding private investment firms.
        Jorge1o1 6y ago
        GP is actully referring to just earning the market rate of return, not beating it. Stocks for the Long Run and all that
        hshshs2 6y ago
    - dnautics 6y ago
      yes but for investors the stock market matters, real world be damned.
senko 6y ago
Looks like they bought it for around $100m, and then pumped additional $37m into it, which would be 7x increase. Not terrible, but probably nothing to write home about, considering Softbanks "world-changing bets" scope. This does sound like shedding off bets that didn't quite live up to the expectation, and making a small[0] profit off of it. [0] Small in the eye of Softbank. If you have a $100B fund and got 0.7B profit, those 0.7% are going to move your needle very much.
homero 6y ago
Honda has robots, maybe they're monetized in other countries
jelliclesfarm 6y ago
There is some merit to that theory. Also..historically robotics companies get acquired by Asian companies because that’s where manufacture and production is happening. Also..in America, we are not as tech forward and don’t embrace robots on our intersections like they’d do in Asia..China, Singapore, Japan, Korea etc. Can you imagine if SPOT mini went around asking people to mask up in American public parks? But Singapore deployed SPOT minis during covid and no one batted an eyelid. When I approached my city’s PD and FD to acquire a couple of SPOT minis, I got a response that I wish I can share here..but sadly I can’t.. suffice to say that it was jaw dropping. With calls for defunding police departments, they are already on financial survival mode.. high tech will never reach American cities never mind be well adopted as in Asian cities. KUKA for example became a Chinese company and was bought out for a pittance. At least Boston Dynamics had a good valuation. I guess SoftBank in America are better deal makers than German KUKA. I have consistently been amazed by the demise and/or sell off of robotics companies for cheap. If the $1 billion number is true, I think that would be the highest number for an acquisition for a robotics company.

sradman 6y ago

From the article: > In early November, Bloomberg first reported that Hyundai was in talks to acquire Boston Dynamics from Tokyo-based SoftBank Group. The Japanese conglomerate is selling off non-core business assets after it was hit hard by a series of soured bets, including WeWork and Uber. In September 2020, Softbank sold Arm to NVIDIA for $40 billion.

stingrae 6y ago
I wonder how much this has changed with the continued increase in stock values and new companies going public. Uber, Doordash, etc. aren't the losers that they appeared to be even just a couple months ago.
- dragonelite 6y ago
  If one thing i have seen stock market != real world economics. You had a car rental go broke and its stock got pumped 500% or so after the fact.
  - stingrae 6y ago
    sure. But for Softbank, this current bump (which is think is artificial and going to pop) could allow for them to liquidate some of their positions (likely without making too much of a price disturbance) to allow for diversification.
    - itsoktocry 6y ago
      >to allow for diversification. I'm not sure that is or was ever in the plans for SoftBank. "Pump and dump" gets thrown around a lot, but hasn't that been their model? Get in as early your massive dollars allow, promote the hell outta the company, feed the tech/SV/VC ecosystem, cash out, repeat.
  - rtx 6y ago
    Stock market is real, what's fake is all the modelling they do in excel.
    - ASalazarMX 6y ago
      Stock market is real for the few privileged insiders, the rest of us have modest profits or even loses that pay for someone else's profits.
      - marcusverus 6y ago
        Silliness. The market is effectively a free money machine for people who are capable of delaying gratification. The fact that most people are not capable of this is not the fault of the market. And, for the record, the rich aren't getting better returns than the rest of us--the S&P beats the vast majority of Hedge Funds, year after year. https://www.cnbc.com/2019/03/15/active-fund-managers-trail-the-sp-500-for-the-ninth-year-in-a-row-in-triumph-for-indexing.html https://www.cnbc.com/2019/03/15/active-fund-managers-trail-t...
        eckmLJE 6y ago
        Half of Americans own stocks at all, and the rich don't have all their money in hedge funds.
        XorNot 6y ago
        Anyone who can consistently beat the market with the their process doesn't stay in the public investment game for long - why would they? They turn into self-funding private investment firms.
        Jorge1o1 6y ago
        GP is actully referring to just earning the market rate of return, not beating it. Stocks for the Long Run and all that
        hshshs2 6y ago
  - dnautics 6y ago
    yes but for investors the stock market matters, real world be damned.

senko 6y ago

Looks like they bought it for around $100m, and then pumped additional $37m into it, which would be 7x increase. Not terrible, but probably nothing to write home about, considering Softbanks "world-changing bets" scope. This does sound like shedding off bets that didn't quite live up to the expectation, and making a small[0] profit off of it. [0] Small in the eye of Softbank. If you have a $100B fund and got 0.7B profit, those 0.7% are going to move your needle very much.

homero 6y ago

Honda has robots, maybe they're monetized in other countries

jelliclesfarm 6y ago

There is some merit to that theory. Also..historically robotics companies get acquired by Asian companies because that’s where manufacture and production is happening. Also..in America, we are not as tech forward and don’t embrace robots on our intersections like they’d do in Asia..China, Singapore, Japan, Korea etc. Can you imagine if SPOT mini went around asking people to mask up in American public parks? But Singapore deployed SPOT minis during covid and no one batted an eyelid. When I approached my city’s PD and FD to acquire a couple of SPOT minis, I got a response that I wish I can share here..but sadly I can’t.. suffice to say that it was jaw dropping. With calls for defunding police departments, they are already on financial survival mode.. high tech will never reach American cities never mind be well adopted as in Asian cities. KUKA for example became a Chinese company and was bought out for a pittance. At least Boston Dynamics had a good valuation. I guess SoftBank in America are better deal makers than German KUKA. I have consistently been amazed by the demise and/or sell off of robotics companies for cheap. If the $1 billion number is true, I think that would be the highest number for an acquisition for a robotics company.