[benjaminwootton]

He built an enormous global business and brand, and the investors wanted to buy his shares and push him out in a transparent negotiated commercial transaction.

He deserved every penny of it as far as I can see.

What’s the alternative? That his stock and voting rights went to SoftBank for free?

[bhouston]

> He built an enormous global business and brand

Brands built upon selling product for less than it is worth are easy to build up. That isn't a real business though, it is just VC-funded make believe.

> What’s the alternative? That his stock and voting rights

Wouldn't it have been better back when WeWork's IPO failed to materialize in 2019 for SoftBank to just stop investing in WeWork it dropped from a planned $100B to $5B in a span of a year or so? And then SoftBank continued to invest to gain control and keep it afloat. Definitely a situation where someone is throwing good money after bad. Should have just left it for dead then.

That is the alternative. And it would have been best for the investors for sure.

In the end SoftBank just offloaded this turkey to the public via a SPAC merger. Did SoftBank end up making any money off this at all? I suspect there was no liquidity for the shares in this SPAC thus I bet they recouped almost nothing from this whole debacle.

[hn_throwaway_99]

> He built an enormous global business and brand.

Why do people think selling dollars for 75 cents is some incredible achievement to be lauded?

[geodel]

He is the role model for quite a lot of people here. See those half-ass CRUD apps launch as world changing Cloud SAAS everyday.

[dahwolf]

He's a bare-footed scamming dopehead that belongs in prison.