Drop in tech stocks, the Japanese giant SoftBank goes to layoffs
According to Reuters, SoftBank Group has begun to lay off employees of its Vision Fund (the largest tech fund in the world today at a loss) and is expected to cut at least 30% of its staff globally.
The drop in technology valuations pushes SoftBank to a drastic step.
The Japanese conglomerate led by founder Masayoshi Son is cutting around 150 employees globally between its Vision Fund unit (the largest tech fund in the world today at a loss) and SoftBank Group International. This is what Reuters reveals according to a person familiar with the matter.
The alerts will be sent to employees on Thursday and will affect about 30 percent of employees in the two businesses, the source told the news agency.
SoftBank's move comes at a time of difficulty for the group and its technology investment vehicle Vision Fund, both of which are under enormous pressure due to the collapse of equity markets and the collapse of technology valuations. The Tokyo-based Japanese financial holding has around 60,000 employees and holds stakes in technology providers for telecommunications, internet services, artificial intelligence, intelligent robotics, IoT and clean energy.
Son pledged to cut costs in August after the Vision Fund unit posted a record loss of $ 23 billion, with the billionaire surprised by rising interest rates and political instability affecting technology valuations. .
All the details.
SOFTBANK SCHEDULED LICENSES
The cuts will affect investment team staff and back-office staff in departments such as finance and legal, a second source said.
The Tokyo-based company began reporting reductions to some employees Thursday with at least 150 who may be affected, Bloomberg reports. The Vision Fund unit, based in London, had approximately 500 employees, including the staff of the Latin America fund.
ALL THE LATEST MOVES OF MASAYOSHI SON
The Vision Fund has radically downsized its investment activity lately, with Son stating that SoftBank's second Vision Fund will primarily manage its existing portfolio.
In early August, CEO Masayoshi Son said he would implement cost cuts for his conglomerate and the Vision Fund after a record loss of $ 23 billion.
So much so that this summer Softbank also sold a third of its stake in Alibaba to obtain liquidity . After that Son tried to open a quote for the British chipmaker Arm, but the volatility of the markets also took away this prospect. The deteriorating situation in the US stock market was not conducive to Arm's IPO, analysts reprized from the FT said.
After the failed sale to Nvidia and the IPO project vanished, Softbank is back on the attack for Arm anyway. Last week Masayoshi Son announced that he will visit Seoul in October to explore the link between Samsung and the British chip designer.
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/innovazione/calo-dei-titoli-tech-il-colosso-nipponico-softbank-passa-ai-licenziamenti/ on Fri, 30 Sep 2022 05:11:34 +0000.