Cis probably the greatest stunt in the history of the Internet. When Japanese Masayoshi Son met Chinese Jack Ma in 1999, the latter didn’t have much to sell. “He had no business plan, no income and 35 employees, but his eyes were shining. The way he spoke and saw things showed charisma and real leadership.”said, much later, the Japanese investor on the Bloomberg television channel.
With 20 million dollars (18.2 million euros, at the current price), he gets his hands on the majority of the capital of the young shoot Alibaba. At the peak of its form, in 2020, the company, which has become the world leader in online commerce, was worth more than 800 billion dollars. And Softbank, Masayoshi Son’s company, still held a quarter of the capital.
This beautiful story comes to an end. THE Financial Times revealed on Thursday April 13 that the Japanese group was in the process of selling almost all of its stake in Alibaba. He would have sold nearly 30 billion dollars in 2022 and 7.2 billion in 2023. At the end of this complex operation, which involves sales contracts granted to brokers, he will soon hold less than 4% of the company.
Unfortunate investments
He will achieve the greatest capital gain of his career, but not the one hoped for in 2020. At the very moment when Alibaba saw its stock market valuation explode, the charismatic Jack Ma, who had been able to seduce Mr. Son so well, spoke the words of too much that irritated the Chinese authorities enough to cancel the operation of the public offering of the insurance subsidiary of Alibaba and that they make Mr. Ma disappear. He has since reappeared, but no longer at the controls of his company, which should be cut into pieces. One does not challenge Chinese power with impunity.
For Softbank, the sale is therefore not at the right time, but it is essential to cover the losses of the unfortunate investments of its recklessly called Vision Fund. A vision that no longer has the sharpness of that of Mr. Son in 1999.
For two years, the losses have been piling up and the company is in desperate need of cash. It is also preparing the reintroduction on the stock market of its other nugget, the British electronics firm Arm. A bubble bursts, a country closes, tensions rise on all sides. In Tokyo, Shanghai or San Francisco, the heroes of the Internet are tired.