SoftBank left millions on the table to engineer a win for Masayoshi Son
SoftBank Group Corp.’s Masayoshi Son, whose record on tech investing took a drubbing after flameouts like WeWork and DoorDash Inc. fueled a record $32 billion loss at its Vision Fund arm in the last fiscal year, was determined to turn the tide.
So as he and the investment firm’s other top executives met with bankers to plot this week’s initial public offering for Arm Holdings Plc, the focus was making sure the sale would go off without a hitch. They didn’t want any last-minute hiccups with buyers pulling out, they dreaded pushback on the valuation, and, most of all, they wanted to set a price that would almost guarantee the shares would pop on their first day of trading.
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Offering CollegeCourseWebsiteIIM LucknowIIML Executive Programme in Data ScienceVisitIndian School of BusinessISB Professional Certificate in Product ManagementVisitIndian School of BusinessISB Digital TransformationVisitNorthwestern UniversityKellogg Post Graduate Certificate in Product ManagementVisitBy that measure, the initial public offering was a smashing success. The shares gained 25% in their debut Thursday after the company raised $4.87 billion to make it the largest US IPO in almost two years. After bringing companies to market in recent years only to see the shares tumble 50%, 60% or 70% in the following months, this was a victory.
But for all the back slapping and congratulations the listing produced from Midtown Manhattan to Tokyo, it also showed the downside of playing it safe. The company left a lot on the table: Pricing the IPO just $1 more a share — a notion Son rejected — would have raised about $100 million more. At the extreme, the tally would have been more than $1 billion bigger
