The world this week Business

摘要

Masayoshi Son, the chief executive of SoftBank, acknowledged that he made a mistake by betting on WeWork, as his group revealed a $4.6bn writedown of its investment in the office-rental startup. Overall, SoftBank reported a quarterly net loss of ¥700bn ($6.4bn)— "red ink of the deepest red", said an unusually contrite Mr Son. The Japanese conglomerate had to rescue WeWork after it abandoned an IPO amid questions about its valuation and a shortage of cash. Mr Son is now taking steps to beef up oversight of SoftBank's many interests, such as demanding at least one seat on the board of any firm it sinks money into.