Son's SoftBank plan at risk as Sprint goes from bad to worse

Tokyo

THE acquisition of Sprint Corp was supposed to help Masayoshi Son realise his vision of transforming SoftBank Group Corp into the world's most-valuable company. Instead, the 2013 deal has become his biggest setback so far, dragging down SoftBank shares and cutting into the billionaire's wealth.

SoftBank tumbled on Monday to its lowest level since the Sprint deal closed 2 1/2 years ago. Mr Son's fortune has shrunk by US$3.2 billion over the past 12 months, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, as the Japanese company's stock plunged.