SoftBank has invested around $8 billion into real estate companies for the past two years, with its biggest recipient being coworking operator WeWork.
Just this week, the Japanese-based company invested $2 billion into WeWork, bringing the firm’s valuation to $47 billion. While this sounds like good news, the original investment was intended to be somewhere between $15 and $20 billion.
SoftBank’s key investors expressed concerns that WeWork was losing too much money and not representative of an actual technology company.
Shortly after this news, WeWork announced its rebranding as “The We Company” in its effort to becoming more than just a real estate company and more of a social network, leading some scratching their heads. CEO Adam Neumann also confirmed that there will eventually be a “The We Bank” as well.