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Masayoshi Son, CEO of SoftBank, has been weighing up various options for chipmaker Arm after Nvidia walked away from buying the company.

Alessandro Di Ciommo | Nurphoto | Getty Images

SoftBank offered a sharp rebuke on Wednesday to S&P Global Ratings, after the agency downgraded the Japanese giant’s credit rating.

“Over the past year, our strict defensive financial management has strengthened our financial position as never before,” SoftBank said. “It is extremely regrettable that our financial soundness was not properly assessed, and we will continue our dialogue with S&P.”

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S&P Global Ratings on Tuesday cut SoftBank’s rating to “BB” from “BB+” — where it deems a company’s credit rating as “speculative grade” or “junk.”

SoftBank shares closed down 2.3% in Tokyo on Wednesday.

SoftBank has turned itself into one of the world’s biggest tech investors over the last few years, putting billions of dollars into some of the biggest technology firms, including Uber, via its two Vision Funds. SoftBank mainly invests in companies that are not publicly listed.

Given the slump in technology shares amid globally rising interest rates, the Vision Fund segment posted a record 4.3 trillion Japanese yen ($3.1 billion) loss for the fiscal year ended Mar. 31, as business valuations plunged.

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SoftBank has been cutting its stake in Chinese e-commerce Alibaba, which it has held for more than two decades and made the Japanese firm’s founder Masayoshi Son his fortune. The aim is to shore up SoftBank’s balance sheet, as the company’s management has pledged to play “defense” and be more prudent with its investment strategy.

S&P Global Ratings nevertheless argues that SoftBank’s Vision Funds have a high exposure to unlisted company shares, which are more volatile, as a result of selling Alibaba stock that are listed in both the U.S. and Hong Kong.

“Ongoing sales of shares in China-based Alibaba Group Holding Ltd … previously a major asset for the company, have eroded the proportion of listed assets in its portfolio,” S&P said. “Furthermore, the technology stocks in which the company has primarily invested have been depressed for a prolonged period.”

SoftBank argues that S&P is not taking into account its cash position, which rose to 5.1 trillion yen in the fiscal year ended Mar. 31, versus 2.3 trillion in the same period of 2022.

“It should be noted that S&P’s assessment of the proportion of listed assets excludes cash and deposits, etc. (JPY 5.1 trillion), which are the most liquid assets,” SoftBank said.

Arm listing in focus

SoftBank in 2016 acquired British chip designer Arm — which last month confidentially filed for a listing in the U.S

Going public with Arm would be a “positive factor” for SoftBank, S&P noted, but it hasn’t included this development in its assessment because the timing and valuation of the company remain “uncertain.”

SoftBank said it has “strongly urged S&P to consider an upgrade once the proposed initial public offering of Arm is completed.”

S&P also noted that SoftBank is aiming for “disciplined financial management even in a difficult operating environment,” which continues to “underpin the company’s creditworthiness.”

Ultimately, the negative factors outweighed the positives, the ratings agency said.

“We therefore downgraded the company. The volatility of its investment portfolio and rising asset risk drive the negatives for the group. Meanwhile, financial management capability; a high level of cash; and holdings of shares in Arm, which could be listed, are positives.”

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Google agrees to pay Texas $1.4 billion data privacy settlement

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Google agrees to pay Texas .4 billion data privacy settlement

A Google corporate logo hangs above the entrance to the company’s office at St. John’s Terminal in New York City on March 11, 2025.

Gary Hershorn | Corbis News | Getty Images

Google agreed to pay nearly $1.4 billion to the state of Texas to settle allegations of violating the data privacy rights of state residents, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton said Friday.

Paxton sued Google in 2022 for allegedly unlawfully tracking and collecting the private data of users.

The attorney general said the settlement, which covers allegations in two separate lawsuits against the search engine and app giant, dwarfed all past settlements by other states with Google for similar data privacy violations.

Google’s settlement comes nearly 10 months after Paxton obtained a $1.4 billion settlement for Texas from Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, to resolve claims of unauthorized use of biometric data by users of those popular social media platforms.

“In Texas, Big Tech is not above the law,” Paxton said in a statement on Friday.

“For years, Google secretly tracked people’s movements, private searches, and even their voiceprints and facial geometry through their products and services. I fought back and won,” said Paxton.

“This $1.375 billion settlement is a major win for Texans’ privacy and tells companies that they will pay for abusing our trust.”

Google spokesman Jose Castaneda said the company did not admit any wrongdoing or liability in the settlement, which involves allegations related to the Chrome browser’s incognito setting, disclosures related to location history on the Google Maps app, and biometric claims related to Google Photo.

Castaneda said Google does not have to make any changes to products in connection with the settlement and that all of the policy changes that the company made in connection with the allegations were previously announced or implemented.

“This settles a raft of old claims, many of which have already been resolved elsewhere, concerning product policies we have long since changed,” Castaneda said.

“We are pleased to put them behind us, and we will continue to build robust privacy controls into our services.”

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Virtual chronic care company Omada Health files for IPO

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Virtual chronic care company Omada Health files for IPO

Omada Health smart devices in use.

Courtesy: Omada Health

Virtual care company Omada Health filed for an IPO on Friday, the latest digital health company that’s signaled its intent to hit the public markets despite a turbulent economy.

Founded in 2012, Omada offers virtual care programs to support patients with chronic conditions like prediabetes, diabetes and hypertension. The company describes its approach as a “between-visit care model” that is complementary to the broader health-care ecosystem, according to its prospectus.

Revenue increased 57% in the first quarter to $55 million, up from $35.1 million during the same period last year, the filing said. The San Francisco-based company generated $169.8 million in revenue during 2024, up 38% from $122.8 million the previous year.

Omada’s net loss narrowed to $9.4 million during its first quarter from $19 million during the same period last year. It reported a net loss of $47.1 million in 2024, compared to a $67.5 million net loss during 2023.

The IPO market has been largely dormant across the tech sector for the past three years, and within digital health, it’s been almost completely dead. After President Donald Trump announced a sweeping tariff policy that plunged U.S. markets into turmoil last month, taking a company public is an even riskier endeavor. Online lender Klarna delayed its long-anticipated IPO, as did ticket marketplace StubHub.

But Omada Health isn’t the first digital health company to file for its public market debut this year. Virtual physical therapy startup Hinge Health filed its prospectus in March, and provided an update with its first-quarter earnings on Monday, a signal to investors that it’s looking to forge ahead.

Omada contracts with employers, and the company said it works with more than 2,000 customers and supports 679,000 members as of March 31. More than 156 million Americans suffer from at least one chronic condition, so there is a significant market opportunity, according to the company’s filing.

In 2022, Omada announced a $192 million funding round that pushed its valuation above $1 billion. U.S. Venture Partners, Andreessen Horowitz and Fidelity’s FMR LLC are the largest outside shareholders in the company, each owning between 9% and 10% of the stock.

“To our prospective shareholders, thank you for learning more about Omada. I invite you join our journey,” Omada co-founder and CEO Sean Duffy said in the filing. “In front of us is a unique chance to build a promising and successful business while truly changing lives.”

WATCH: The IPO market is likely to pick up near Labor Day, says FirstMark’s Rick Heitzmann

The IPO market is likely to pick up near Labor Day, says FirstMark's Rick Heitzmann

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Google would need to shift up to 2,000 employees for antitrust remedies, search head says

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Google would need to shift up to 2,000 employees for antitrust remedies, search head says

Liz Reid, vice president, search, Google speaks during an event in New Delhi on December 19, 2022.

Sajjad Hussain | AFP | Getty Images

Testimony in Google‘s antitrust search remedies trial that wrapped hearings Friday shows how the company is calculating possible changes proposed by the Department of Justice.

Google head of search Liz Reid testified in court Tuesday that the company would need to divert between 1,000 and 2,000 employees, roughly 20% of Google’s search organization, to carry out some of the proposed remedies, a source with knowledge of the proceedings confirmed.

The testimony comes during the final days of the remedies trial, which will determine what penalties should be taken against Google after a judge last year ruled the company has held an illegal monopoly in its core market of internet search.

The DOJ, which filed the original antitrust suit and proposed remedies, asked the judge to force Google to share its data used for generating search results, such as click data. It also asked for the company to remove the use of “compelled syndication,” which refers to the practice of making certain deals with companies to ensure its search engine remains the default choice in browsers and smartphones. 

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Google pays Apple billions of dollars per year to be the default search engine on iPhones. It’s lucrative for Apple and a valuable way for Google to get more search volume and users.

Apple’s SVP of Services Eddy Cue testified Wednesday that Apple chooses to feature Google because it’s “the best search engine.”

The DOJ also proposed the company divest its Chrome browser but that was not included in Reid’s initial calculation, the source confirmed.

Reid on Tuesday said Google’s proprietary “Knowledge Graph” database, which it uses to surface search results, contains more than 500 billion facts, according to the source, and that Google has invested more than $20 billion in engineering costs and content acquisition over more than a decade.

“People ask Google questions they wouldn’t ask anyone else,” she said, according to the source.

Reid echoed Google’s argument that sharing its data would create privacy risks, the source confirmed.

Closing arguments for the search remedies trial will take place May 29th and 30th, followed by the judge’s decision expected in August.

The company faces a separate remedies trial for its advertising tech business, which is scheduled to begin Sept. 22.

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