Reuters
At the beginning of this week, Japanese investment giant SoftBank announced a plan to execute its largest-ever share buyback of company stock through selling off $41 billion of its key assets. That plan was apparently well-received, with shares shooting up 19% on Monday.
But a new report from Financial Times reporters Arash Massoudi and Anjli Raval shows that the pressure to manage all the turbulence was enough to make SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son consider taking the company private.
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The plan was ultimately scrapped due to difficulties of getting investors together quickly enough to execute such a complex deal, listing rules in Tokyo, and tax considerations, the Financial Times reported.
A SoftBank spokesperson declined to comment on the reports. But the fact that a leveraged buyout of the company was even considered illustrates the extent to which SoftBank's struggles on the global market have rattled both the company's leaders and investors.
As the coronavirus outbreak has destroyed swathes of the global economy, the public market has been hit hard. But SoftBank seems to have suffered especially, in the wake of the failed IPO and bailout of embattled company WeWork.
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