By Alex Ho
Investing.com - Masayoshi Son, Chief Executive of the Japanese conglomerate SoftBank Corp (T:9434), said he will “start to be more careful and listen” after several of his expensive investments on startups failed.
"I promise you I'll start to be more careful and listen. My view doesn't change, but my behavior becomes a little more careful," Son said at a presentation at the Lotte New York Palace hotel in Manhattan.
His comments came a month after reports said hedge fund Elliott Management held talks with SoftBank’s management and is calling on the company to buy back some $20 billion of its stockand improved its governance.
SoftBank invested billions of dollar on troubled office-space company WeWork in recent years, but the deal has proven to be a failure as WeWork imploded dramatically during its attempt to make it to the public markets.
Last year, SoftBank reported that it had taken a nearly $4.6 billion hit from its investment in WeWork, triggering an apology from Son who admitted his investment judgement was “really bad.”
In his remarks on Monday, Son said WeWork new CEO Sandeep Mathrani will turn SoftBank's investment around, but cautioned this could take years.
SoftBank’s shares in Japan climbed 1.1% to 5,094 yen by 1:26 AM ET (05:26 GMT) on Tuesday.