The Japanese telecommunications company and investment giant SoftBank Group Corp. is under S.E.C. investigation for alleged market manipulation. Softbank is the world’s largest technology-focused venture capital fund, and has a particular interest in ride-hailing companies. Except for Lyft Inc., SoftBank owns significant minority stakes in just about every other company in the market. According to Aaron Greenspan, the founder of the Think Computer Foundation, the allegations relate to stock manipulation. Allegedly, SoftBank was responsible for stoking a huge rally in tech stocks in August that involved its buying billions of dollars worth of call options and in doing so saw shares in tech companies in which it had a stake a surge in value
Along with operating the world’s largest technology-focused venture capital fund, Softbank has a particular interest in ride-hailing companies. Except for Lyft Inc., SoftBank owns significant minority stakes in just about every other company in the market. When Grab purchased Uber’s Southeast Asian arm in 2018, it was a deal between two SoftBank-funded companies.
