China’s Didi Chuxing is preparing yet another market expansion after it inked an agreement with SoftBank, Uber’s largest shareholder, to introduce taxi-hailing services in Japan this year. Didi dominates the Chinese market — thanks in no small amount to its acquisition of second-placed Uber China — but this year it has expanded to Brazil via an acquisition and Taiwan via… Read More
Category: Softbank
SoftBank’s Vision Fund has already spent over $35 billion on investments
SoftBank made waves when its gigantic Vision Fund hit a massive $93 billion first close of a targeted $100 billion total last year, but already it is clear why the firm is reportedly planning a sequel. According to the Japanese firm’s latest financials, it has already deployed one-third of the capital. A large chunk of the investments went on ride-hailing. SoftBank completed a $7.7… Read More
SoftBank buys into Line’s mobile service in Japan
SoftBank is partnering up with messaging app Line to help develop its Line Mobile telecom service. Line announced that it has agreed to allow SoftBank to take a 51 percent in the business via an issuance of new shares. The deal is expected to clo…
View More SoftBank buys into Line’s mobile service in JapanBenchmark’s lawsuit against former Uber CEO Kalanick dismissed
It’s over. Benchmark’s lawsuit against former Uber CEO Travis Kalanick has now been dropped, ending one of the biggest VC-founder disputes in history. It was dismissed as a condition of the SoftBank investment in Uber getting done. The deal was completed earlier this month, giving both Benchmark and Kalanick an opportunity to sell a significant Uber stake. Read More
Construction startup Katerra gets $865M in Softbank’s latest mega-round
There’s another big financing round led by Softbank’s mammoth vision fund today, with the firm this time pouring $865 million into a construction startup called Katerra that’s a one-stop shop for getting a building up off the ground. Katerra is creating a full-stack provider for, well, buildings. The company runs the process of getting a building up and people inside it from… Read More
Crunch Report | Amazon reveals 20 finalists for second HQ
The 20 finalist cities for Amazon’s second HQ are announced, HuffPost drops its free contributor platform and Uber’s SoftBank deal officially closes. All this on Crunch Report. Read More
Uber’s big SoftBank deal has officially closed
SoftBank’s $1.2 billion primary direct investment deal has officially closed, according to Uber itself, which confirmed the deal closure and provided the following statement to TechCrunch via a spokesperson:
We’re proud to have SoftBank, Dragoneer and the entire consortium in the Uber family. This is a great outcome for our shareholders, employees and customers, strengthening… Read More
Crunch Report | GoPro Cuts 200-300 Jobs
App revenue reached $60 billion in 2017, Travis Kalanick is selling 29 percent of his Uber shares and GoPro cuts 200-300 jobs. All this on Crunch Report. Read More
View More Crunch Report | GoPro Cuts 200-300 JobsEquity podcast: Spotify’s impending debut, Uber’s done deal, and Nasdaq 7,000
Hello and welcome back to Equity, TechCrunch’s venture capital-focused podcast where we unpack the numbers behind the headlines.
This episode, the first of 2018, saw our own Katie Roof and your humble servant (Alex) joined by Atish Davda, CEO and founder of EquityZen. Matthew Lynley is off this week.
(Davda’s firm put together a landing page for Equity, which we thought was… Read More
Travis Kalanick reportedly plans to sell about 29% of his Uber shares
Uber founder and former CEO Travis Kalanick plans to sell nearly a third of his shares in the company, reports Bloomberg. The transaction would be part of the tender offer in which SoftBank Group agreed to buy shares in Uber valuing it at $48 billion, a huge discount from its last fundraising valuation. According to Bloomberg’s sources, Kalanick wants to sell 29% of his stake and would… Read More
A look back at Uber’s hellish year
We endured plenty of the drama Uber packed in for every five-hundred twenty-five thousand six hundred minutes of 2017 — and what a year! From protests to a major sexual harassment probe, the ousting of co-founder and CEO Travis Kalanick, the crowning of new CEO Dara Khosrowshahi, the promising hints of that long-awaited IPO and an on-going lawsuit with Google over self-driving cars.… Read More
Crunch Report | South Korea Announces New Cryptocurrency Regulations
South Korea announces new cryptocurrency regulations coinciding with the drop in bitcoin prices, YouTube gets pulled from Fire TV and SoftBank will now own about 15 percent of Uber. All this on Crunch Report. Read More
View More Crunch Report | South Korea Announces New Cryptocurrency Regulations