Michael Ronen, who oversaw the U.S. investments of the US$100-billion SoftBank Vision Fund, has been negotiating an exit package for several weeks. (Financial Times)

Talking point: SoftBank’s share price has dropped about 25 per cent since April, after a year that saw disappointing market debuts from portfolio firms Uber and Slack and a steep decline in WeWork’s valuation. Earlier this week, Business Insider reported that SoftBank’s chief people officer, Michelle Horn, had left the firm after just one year in her role. Ronen has lasted longer, having been with SoftBank since 2017. The future of another executive—Ron Fisher, head of investment—is also being internally discussed, although the firm said he was “not going anywhere.” Staff exits are only part of the problem. In November 2019, SoftBank reported a US$6.5-billion quarterly operating loss, its first in 14 years. It’s claimed that investors have committed US$108 billion for Vision Fund 2, but they’re all non-binding, and SoftBank is the only company so far to actually put in any money.