Motion blur

7 February 2018 By Quentin Webb

Masayoshi Son’s group deployed $27 bln using the Vision Fund and a sister vehicle in barely seven months. Plenty more big ticket spending is in the works. Such frantic dealmaking is sure to generate a few flops – which won’t matter if the tech funds can find a few more Alibabas.

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SoftBank Group said on Feb. 7 that its adjusted EBITDA for the three months to December rose about 1 percent from the same period a year earlier to 666 billion yen ($6.10 billion), on sales of 2.4 trillion yen.

The Japanese company said its flagship technology investment vehicle, the SoftBank Vision Fund and the Delta Fund, a second tech fund, had spent $27.4 billion on acquisitions, excluding deals awaiting regulatory approval. The Vision Fund held its first close in May.

On the same day, the telecoms and technology group also confirmed it had begun preparations to list its domestic telecoms subsidiary SoftBank Corp. This plan was first reported last month by the Nikkei, which said such a move could raise about 2 trillion yen.

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