154
submitted 1 year ago by L4s@lemmy.world to c/technology@lemmy.world

SoftBank is suing portfolio company IRL after it admitted 95% of its users were fake. VCs are stressing the need for ‘uncomfortable’ due diligence::undefined

top 12 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[-] a_hungry_rat@lemmy.world 43 points 1 year ago

How is it uncomfortable verifying how many customers you have? As someone who works in the legal sector I am staggered by how many anyone nebulous software companies are bought without the buyer conducting minimal due diligence like a review of the top 20 customers.

[-] jet@hackertalks.com 41 points 1 year ago

https://www.forbes.com/sites/abrambrown/2021/06/15/social-messaging-app-irl-gets-11-billion-valuation-from-softbank-plots-monetization/

"If you’re a teen in America, then you probably are familiar with a messaging app called IRL. The rest of you likely are not—aside from some big name tech investors keen to shower the startup with a large new funding round."

Even the journalist believed the lie. Nobody checked with the teens!

I’ll be blunt: if a large bank is stupid enough to invest money in a company that’s basically vaporware, and they invest because they were far too lazy to do any real due diligence, that’s on the bank.

[-] Bal@lemm.ee 17 points 1 year ago

Just to clarify, SoftBank is not a bank.

[-] dragontamer@lemmy.world 7 points 1 year ago

Just to clarify: a "commercial bank" is like Bank of America, or Wells Fargo.

An "investment bank" is like... Softbank. They pool money together of the rich and they all make massive bets on companies with their pooled money.

That just makes it worse and totally deserved.

"You had one fucking job!"

[-] dragontamer@lemmy.world 2 points 1 year ago

Softbank's explicit strategy on their "Vision Fund" was to bankroll their investments with so much money, that all other competitors lost.

Its harmful to our economy and people need to recognize how targeted and how much of a dick-move this was for the last 10 years.

[-] czarrie@lemmy.world 3 points 1 year ago

Yeah, they make Link Amps

[-] gamer@lemm.ee 10 points 1 year ago

It’s never a bad day when tech VCs lose money

[-] silverbax@lemmy.world 9 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

SoftBank is astoundingly bad at this. This is the same company that acquired Sprint, among other bad decisions. Last fall they were happy that they only lost $6 Billion in the quarter because they'd lost $10B the previous quarter. The financial system is really fucked up when companies like this just stay in business despite this type of incompetence.

[-] funkless_eck@sh.itjust.works 4 points 1 year ago

This is literally the GoJo plot in Succession lmao

[-] Telodzrum@lemmy.world 1 points 1 year ago

That’s because it keeps happening in real life

this post was submitted on 14 Aug 2023
154 points (98.1% liked)

Technology

60086 readers
2210 users here now

This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.


Our Rules


  1. Follow the lemmy.world rules.
  2. Only tech related content.
  3. Be excellent to each another!
  4. Mod approved content bots can post up to 10 articles per day.
  5. Threads asking for personal tech support may be deleted.
  6. Politics threads may be removed.
  7. No memes allowed as posts, OK to post as comments.
  8. Only approved bots from the list below, to ask if your bot can be added please contact us.
  9. Check for duplicates before posting, duplicates may be removed

Approved Bots


founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS