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Dog-walking app Wag may be raising a huge round of funding
It looks like Wag may get another huge injection of cash following a big financing round earlier this year, according to a report by Recode, and also based on what we are hearing. We had heard a bit ago that Wag was looking to raise around $100 million, which the Recode report also suggests. But it now looks like Softbank is in talks to invest around $300 million in the dog-walking app.… Read More
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SoftBank could still walk away from Uber
Uber said Sunday that it agreed to move forward on a proposed investment from SoftBank Group. But SoftBank Investment Advisors sent a statement to reporters on Monday on behalf of CEO Rajeev Misra, emphasizing that it could still walk away. Uber confirms SoftBank has agreed to invest billions
The paperwork’s done! The long-anticipated SoftBank Group investment into Uber has been agreed upon, a spokesperson confirms to TechCrunch. We’ve been provided the following statement. “We’ve entered into an agreement with a consortium led by SoftBank and Dragoneer on a potential investment. We believe this agreement is a strong vote of confidence in Uber’s… Read More
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SoftBank increasing Sprint stake after T-Mobile deal called off
The proposed tie-up between two American telecom giants was formally called off this weekend. Sprint and T-Mobile had been negotiations for months but ultimately decided not to go forward with a deal. “The companies were unable to find mutually agreeable terms,” the businesses announced in a joint press release Saturday. Last week, reports suggested that the deal was on the verge… Read More
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Petuum secures $93M Series B to push AI into the mainstream
With a shortage of machine learning developers bearing down on the industry, startups and big tech companies alike are moving to democratize the tools necessary to commercialize artificial intelligence. The latest startup, Petuum, is announcing a $93 million Series B this morning from Softbank and Advantech Capital.
Founded last year by Dr. Eric Xing, a Carnegie Mellon machine learning… Read More
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SoftBank pours $4.4B into WeWork
WeWork just announced that it’s receiving a massive $4.4 billion investment from SoftBank Group and SoftBank Vision Fund.
It’s been less than a month since WeWork announced $500 million in funding for a standalone WeWork China business, which SoftBank participated in. It’s also launching in Japan through a joint venture with SoftBank — so this funding deepens an… Read More
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Travis Kalanick reportedly sought to reassert control at Uber after ouster
Just under two months after resigning from Uber, former CEO Travis Kalanick has reportedly asked some former colleagues if they would support him in a potential shareholder battle, according to a new report by The Information. You’ll periodically find these kinds of proxy fights happening at public companies, but after his ouster, it appears that Kalanick still may want to try to gain… Read More
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A running list of every company backed by the $93B SoftBank Vision Fund
When SoftBank announced the first close of its $93 billion Vision Fund back in May, it was hard to understand how the company would even manage to deploy so much capital in an already saturated ecosystem. For starters, it seemed like a good idea to keep a running list of all Vision Fund investments for reference. We will update this list on a regular basis. Read More
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Billionaires make it rain on Plenty, the indoor farming startup
SoftBank Vision Fund, the huge tech-investment vehicle helmed by Japanese billionaire Masayoshi Son, has led a $200 million investment into indoor farming startup Plenty. Joining Son are notable tech billionaires Eric Schmidt and Jeff Bezos. Plenty farms can grow anything except tree fruit and root vegetables, and produce crops at yields 530x greater than a typical field. Read More
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Softbank has completed its £24B cash acquisition of ARM Holdings
One of the biggest tech deals this year — and the biggest ever in the UK — has now closed. Today, Softbank announced that it has completed its acquisition of ARM Holdings, the semiconductor firm that it said in July it would acquire for £24 billion in cash (around $32 billion in today’s currency, $31 billion at the time of the deal), in order to make a big jump into IoT. As… Read More
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