Delivery boom: Ant Group-backed Zomato eyes IPO valuation of nearly $8bn July 8, 2021 Ant Group-backed food delivery company Zomato has a near $8bn valuation on the cards in its initial public offering (IPO), with shares priced at 0.96 cents to $1.02 per share. Zomato, one of India’s most biggest startups, has reaped the rewards of a pandemic-induced surge in online ordering. The lofty $7.98bn figure is at the [...]
SoftBank-backed Sinch to buy MessageMedia for $1.3bn June 9, 2021 Cloud communications firm Sinch is set to buy mobile messaging business MessageMedia for $1.3bn to bolster small and medium businesses (SMEs) post-pandemic. Sinch, of which Japan’s SoftBank has a $690m stake, will seal the deal with $1.1bn in cash around 1m new shares. “Addressing small and medium-sized businesses opens up a new avenue to growth [...]
Walmart backed Indian e-commerce site Flipkart looks to raise $3bn ahead of IPO June 7, 2021 Indian e-commerce giant Flipkart, which is controlled by Walmart, is looking to raise $3bn from SoftBank and other investors as the e-commerce market swells. Targeting a valuation of an eyewatering £40bn, Flipkart will also rally several sovereign wealth funds, Bloomberg first reported. According to one of the sources involved in the private discussions, who opted [...]
Neumann’s WeWork exit package increases with $245m in potential stock May 28, 2021 Former WeWork boss Adam Neumann is set to emerge from his separation with the company with an extra stock award worth $245m. Neumann has also received almost $200m in cash after renegotiating the terms of his 2019 exit agreement. The shares come on top of an already generous package for Neumann, who gave up his [...]
Contentsquare secures $2.8bn price tag after Softbank-led funding round May 26, 2021 Data analytics platform Contentsquare has secured a valuation of $2.8bn (£1.9bn) following a funding round led by Japanese investment giant Softbank. The digital experience firm, which helps companies understand how people interact on their website or app, nabbed the price tag after raising $500m in a Series E round. The cash injection was led by [...]
WeWork posts £1.45bn loss ahead of stock market debut May 21, 2021 WeWork today posted a £1.45bn first quarter loss as the office-sharing startup prepares for its stock market debut. The company, which is backed by Japanese tech giant SoftBank, said its quarterly revenue almost halved from a year ago to $598m. WeWork had originally attempted to go public in 2019, but the move collapsed over concerns [...]
Softbank ‘mulls $300bn Spac listing’ for Vision Fund May 17, 2021 Softbank is reportedly weighing up a $300bn (£212bn) blank-cheque deal to take its tech-focused Vision Fund public. The Japanese conglomerate is said to be discussing plans to raise capital through a special purpose acquisition company (Spac) deal on the Amsterdam stock exchange later this year. It is planning to seek around €250bn from the listing, [...]
Alphawave shares lift slightly, after 22 per cent plunge in London stock market debut May 14, 2021 Following a turbulent market debut yesterday, Alphawave’s shares rebounded slightly in its second day of trading in the capital. The tech firm’s share price bounced to 366.2p per share this morning, down 1.03 per cent, after prices fell as low as 310.85p yesterday. Over half a billion pounds was wiped from the Canadian computer chip [...]
SoftBank posts highest-ever annual profit for a Japanese company May 12, 2021 Japanese investment giant SoftBank today reported a record annual group net profit of $45.8bn, putting it among the world’s biggest earning firms. SoftBank’s net income beat the $42.5bn made by Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway in its last business year and compared to a ¥962bn loss a year earlier. Market enthusiasm for tech stocks drove the [...]
Tecent, Baidu and SoftBank fined in China for monopolistic behaviour in fintech crackdown March 12, 2021 China’s market regulator said today it has fined 12 companies $77,000 each for flouting anti-monopoly rules. Concerning ten deals in particular, companies including Tencent Holdings, Baidu Inc, Softbank and a ByteDance-backed firm, were fined for behaviour that caused market concentration, the State Administration for Market Regulation (SAMR) said. The companies’ actions did not completely exclude [...]