SoftBank Reports Record Quarterly Loss

SoftBank, a Japanese conglomerate that has invested in crypto companies, reported a record quarterly loss of $23.4 billion. The company attributed the loss to the global tech stock sell-off and rapid fall of the yen, according to an earnings presentation.

• The majority of the loss for its fiscal first quarter ended June 30, or about $21.7 billion, was tied to the group of SoftBank Vision Fund investment vehicles and largely attributable to declines in publicly traded companies such as ride-share company Uber and home-selling platform Opendoor.
• SoftBank’s crypto investments have included exchange FTX , NFT (non-fungible token) platforms Candy Digital and Sorare, metaverse projects The Sandbox and Improbable and Web3 infrastructure company InfStones.
• “We are in a defense mode," CEO Masayoshi Son said in a message that accompanied the report. "The world is still very volatile. Inflation is still severe. Interest rate is going up. In a difficult time, we kept on divesting our assets. We reduced new investments. We now have a much more managed, conservative approach to investments."
• A weaker yen hurts the company because it translates into a lower amount when converted into dollars.

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