Vincent Boland: Japanese finance’s favourite Son loses knack of picking winners

Masayoshi Son’s attempt to reinvigorate his beloved SoftBank by mounting a share buyback is a lame attempt to rouse it out of its own inertia

Masayoshi Son, chairman and chief executive officer of SoftBank Group Corp: once a master trend-spotter in the tech world, these days he seems a bit lost. Picture: Getty

A few years ago, during one of his occasional detours into mysticism and flights of fancy, Masayoshi Son attempted to define the purpose of SoftBank, the technology investment company he founded and runs. “SoftBank works to comfort people in their sorrow,” he suggested, apparently sincerely.

Son, who has made billions buying and selling tech companies and is Japan’s most high-profile entrepreneur, made another stab last week at defining SoftBank, and this time he was a ...