Brief - The Hustle

Corporate people getting busted for stuff they say

Written by Trung T. Phan | Oct 30, 2020 7:42:16 AM

The WeWork drama keeps on keeping on.

Last October, SoftBank tried to salvage WeWork’s failed IPO by making an offer to take over the beleaguered real estate startup for $9.5B.

The bid included $3B for WeWork shareholders, including those owned by its ex-CEO, Adam “shoes are optional” Neumann.

Well, SoftBank’s CEO Masayoshi Son didn’t want to pay out

In a series of undated texts that recently came to light, Son asked one of his top lieutenants (Marcelo Claure) to delay the tender offer:

  • Son: “It’s great to postpone the close of tender… Use whatever excuse to make senses [sic].”
  • Claure: “Ok. Will use antitrust. I am turning good at excuses like someone I know very well :).”

The tender never went through and SoftBank was actually within its legal rights to walk away from the offer — but the texts don’t look great.

A few other not-so-great corporate communications

Here are 2 from our favorite Harvard dropouts-turned-billionaires:

  • Mark Zuckerberg once sent an IM to a friend outlining how he was going to screw the Winklevoss Twins: “Yeah, I’m going to f**k them… probably in the ear.”
  • Paul Allen (who was recovering from cancer at the time) overheard Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer discussing his future with Microsoft: “They were bemoaning my recent lack of production and discussing how they might dilute my Microsoft equity by issuing options to themselves and other shareholders.”

C’mon guys!