Premium: The Hater's Guide To SoftBank
SoftBank's 46th annual shareholder meeting, led by Masayoshi Son, has drawn mockery for its unconventional presentation slides, with Financial Times' Bryce Elder comparing the spectacle to an "Untethered Goose Game."
Background
- SoftBank is a Japanese conglomerate led by founder Masayoshi Son (often called "Masa"). It operates the world's largest tech investment fund, the Vision Fund, which has made huge bets on companies like WeWork, Arm (a chip designer), and Alibaba.
- Son is known for dramatic, emotional presentations at shareholder meetings — speaking of his "tears," his "fighting spirit," and using flashy slides with anime-inspired art. This article is about the most recent (46th) such meeting, where the slides were so over-the-top that financial journalists compared Son to a "loose goose" causing chaos.
- The article is a critical take on SoftBank's investment strategy, which has swung wildly from huge losses (WeWork's collapse, the 2022 tech downturn) to massive gambles on AI infrastructure and Arm's IPO. Critics argue Son lacks discipline and that SoftBank's structure — a holding company with opaque cross-shareholdings — makes it impossible for outsiders to value properly.
- The subtitle "Hater's Guide" signals the piece is written from a skeptical, bearish perspective, aimed at readers who are already following tech finance drama.