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Ask HN: Why does SoftBank keep falling for lemons?

10 points by Maxamillion96 ↗ HN
With the recent exposure of IRL as a fraud (and keeping in mind WeWork,Greensill etc) I’m wondering if there’s a reason why Son keeps throwing his money at the worst possible companies. Outside of Alibaba (which happened before the vision fund) I believe none of them have been successful. Why do you think that is?

5 comments

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NickC25
A fool and his money are easily parted. Only logical explanation I can think of. Otherwise, why would he give Adam Neumann another billion after WeWork blew up so spectacularly?
quickthrower2
Confirmation bias or sunk cost fallacy? I guess if you have billions you shouldn't fall for that, or at least have advisors that stop you if it is a blind spot.
NickC25
Dunno - I mean if you've got that sort of money, you might have more people willing to be yes-men and not rock the boat than give honest advice. Perhaps Son has surrounded himself with people afraid to tell him no.
cm2012
He's not a good investor, but he's great at convincing very rich people to let him invest their money.
suyula
Because most things fail, but a handful of successes will pay for the failures.