Masayoshi Son, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Corp., speaks at a joint announcement with Toyota Motor Corp. to form a new partnership to explore mobility services in Tokyo, Japan, on October 4, 2018.
Alessandro Di Ciommo | NurPhoto | Getty Images
According to SoftBank’s most recent financial report, released on Tuesday, it has sold interests in U.S. IT heavyweights such as Facebook, Microsoft, Alphabet, and Netflix.
The Tokyo-based conglomerate’s SB Northstar trading unit trades in publicly traded shares, and its quarterly results provide a breakdown of the unit’s portfolio firms.
SB Northstar’s portfolio included Facebook, Microsoft, Alphabet, and Netflix at the end of March, but they were missing by the end of the April-June quarter, indicating a decline or total unload of assets.
SoftBank owned $3.1 billion in Facebook stock, $1 billion in Microsoft stock, $575 million in Alphabet stock, and $382 million in Alphabet stock at the end of March. of Netflix shares. However, none of the four were mentioned in the June report.
According to the documents, SoftBank cut its stake in Amazon from $6.2 billion to $5.6 billion.
SB Northstar had $13.6 billion in holdings in companies at the end of June, down from $19 billion at the end of March.
When asked about the sale of tech stocks, a SoftBank representative referred CNBC to the filings but declined to comment further.
Last September, The Financial Times reported SoftBank was the “Nasdaq whale” that bought billions of dollars in call options, which are bets on stocks rising.
SoftBank had been picking up options in key tech giants like Tesla, Amazon, Microsoft, and Netflix, according to the report, potentially driving up valuations in the sector. At the time, SoftBank declined to comment on the report.
SoftBank’s overall net profit for the fiscal first quarter decreased 39% year on year to 762 billion Japanese yen ($6.9 billion), as Chinese regulators cracked down on its biggest bet, Alibaba, as well as other companies in its portfolio like Didi.
As firms in its portfolio went public, the SoftBank Vision Fund, a dedicated internet investment fund, made a $2.1 billion profit.
