---
title: "Elliott's SoftBank playbook"
description: "How the activist fund approached Masa and what it asked him to do."
canonical: https://tomsharman.com/bookshelf/gambling-man/elliotts-softbank-playbook/
updated: 2026-11-03
---

# Elliott's SoftBank playbook

> How the activist fund approached Masa and what it asked him to do.

Lionel Barber's framework, from Gambling Man, pp. 235 to 296.

Framework 8 of 8 from [Gambling Man](https://tomsharman.com/bookshelf/gambling-man/index.md) by Lionel Barber. Category: Sales and negotiation.

## The steps

1. **Build a stake quietly.** Buy bite-sized chunks until holding about 3 per cent, around $3bn, then tell the company privately.
2. **Show the discount against a peer.** Compare SoftBank's discount with Berkshire Hathaway, which trades above net asset value.
3. **Speak to his vanity and sense of injustice.** Frame the gap as unfair and the buy-back as a way to prove he is right.
4. **Propose the menu.** Sell assets, buy back about $20bn of shares and change the board.
5. **Step back as the board acts.** Let Masa announce $40bn of asset sales and $24bn of buy-backs on his own terms.

## Where it comes from

From chapter: PART FIVE: HUBRIS, pp. 235–296

Part Five covers 2016 to 2022. Masa raises the SoftBank Vision Fund from Saudi Arabia, Abu Dhabi and Qatar, claims a 44 per cent IRR, and promises Donald Trump 50,000 jobs. He backs Adam Neumann at WeWork on a napkin contract, pushes the valuation to $47bn, and then cancels the buyout in December 2018. WeWork collapses in October 2019, Elliott Management exposes the conglomerate discount, and the Covid crash forces $40bn of asset sales and $24bn of buy-backs. The Nasdaq whale trades through Northstar, the board loses executives, and Masa retreats in 2022 with a theme of defence.

## The animation

24 seconds, 4:5, no sound.

- MP4: https://tomsharman-downloads-006143767029.s3.eu-north-1.amazonaws.com/downloads/bookshelf/gambling-man/elliotts-softbank-playbook.mp4
- MP4, dark: https://tomsharman-downloads-006143767029.s3.eu-north-1.amazonaws.com/downloads/bookshelf/gambling-man/elliotts-softbank-playbook-dark.mp4
- Still: https://tomsharman-downloads-006143767029.s3.eu-north-1.amazonaws.com/downloads/bookshelf/gambling-man/elliotts-softbank-playbook.png
- Still, dark: https://tomsharman-downloads-006143767029.s3.eu-north-1.amazonaws.com/downloads/bookshelf/gambling-man/elliotts-softbank-playbook-dark.png