Two weeks after acknowledging it might choose not to do an extremely stupid thing, SoftBank has made it official: It will not throw another $3 billion in good money after the $15 billion in bad and save Adam Neumann and WeWork’s venture capital investors from themselves and the terrible choices they (and SoftBank) have made. Not because it can’t afford it; after all, Son can apparently just conjure $41 billion at will. But because he doesn’t have to.
SoftBank said the offer to buy WeWork shares could not close because certain conditions had not been met. These, SoftBank said, included the failure to obtain antitrust approvals and complete takeovers of joint ventures in Asia. It also cited government investigations that began after the offer to buy the shares was signed in October.