In venture capital, the first investment in a startup is almost always the most lucrative. Not so for SoftBank Group Corp.’s investment in WeWork. In that case, SoftBank’s best deal was its last.
It’s an unusual culmination of a strange and sometimes tortured partnership between the two companies. SoftBank will finally get a chance to start recouping some of the more than $17 billion it poured into WeWork when the company lists its shares on the New York Stock Exchange as soon as this week.
The web of share purchases, convertible loans, warrants, tender offers and letters of credit (some renegotiated) make it difficult for analysts to tell whether, or how, SoftBank could ever turn a profit on its investment. Representatives for WeWork and SoftBank declined to comment.