Paul Singer
David A. Grogan | CNBC
Billionaire investor Paul Singer’s hedge fund, Elliott Management, has taken a more than $2.5 billion stake in SoftBank, according to a report from The Wall Street Journal.
The report added top staffers from Elliott have met with SoftBank founder Masayoshi Son along with some of his deputies. It also said the hedge fund is pushing SoftBank to repurchase between $10 billion and $20 billion in stock.
Elliott confirmed to CNBC it had a stake in SoftBank, but did not confirm its size. The hedge fund said in a statement: “Elliott’s substantial investment in SoftBank Group reflects its strong conviction that the market significantly undervalues SoftBank’s portfolio of assets.”
Concerns with SoftBank and its high-profile Vision Fund come months after the company plowed billions into office space sharing startup WeWork. Though cast as up-and-coming Silicon Valley darling, WeWork soon proved rife with financial pitfalls that later forced SoftBank to strike a deal to take control of the company with $5 billion in new funding.
The investment in WeWork represented a single, but public misstep for the Vision Fund, a fund that’s historically generated eye-popping returns by taking stakes in promising startups around the world, including Slack and Uber Technologies.
SoftBank did not respond to CNBC’s request for comment.