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WeWork saga just latest blunder at SoftBank

SoftBank was once seen as a master of tech investing for buying early stakes in Yahoo and Alibaba. It is now better known for something else: a string of flops and its mastery of face-saving accounting wheezes.

The Lex Column

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The dumb money was not so dumb after all. Public investors rejected WeWork’s plan to float.

Instead, SoftBank — supposedly the smart money in tech — will double down on its investment in the controversial US offices business. The Japanese group will inject $US6.5 billion ($9.5 billion) to dodge a writedown and save face. The constituency convinced by SoftBank’s accounting manoeuvres is dwindling fast.

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    Original URL: https://www.afr.com/link/follow-20180101-p533sr