SoftBank Vision Fund posts $17.7 billion loss on WeWork, Uber Technologies

SoftBank Group said its Vision Fund business lost $17.7 billion last fiscal year after writing down the value of investments, including WeWork and Uber Technologies. The losses are the worst ever in the company’s 39-year history.

The group also doubled the amount it plans to spend buying back shares and announced changes to its board, including the resignation of long-time director Jack Ma. The company plans to repurchase as much as $4.7 billion worth of its own stock by March 2021, it said, That’s on top of an equal sized repurchase it had announced in mid-March.

SoftBank founder Masayoshi Son’s $100 billion Vision Fund went from the group’s main contributor to profit a year ago to its biggest drag on earnings.