SoftBank’s Golden Eggs | Reddit’s Doubling Valuation | The Women Behind Unemployment Data

Plus: Billionaire Names Oil Stocks He Calls ‘The Investment Opportunity Of My Career’

Good morning.

Japanese billionaire Masayoshi Son is finally reaping a profit from the supersized tech bets in SoftBank’s Vision Funds. We also look at how Reddit’s valuation has doubled after raising $250 million in the aftermath of the eventful meme stock rally, and we speak to women who were forced out of the labor force due to the pandemic.

In The News Today

CD Projekt Red was hit by hackers in a ransomware cyberattack—while the ransom amount was not disclosed, the Cyberpunk 2077 video game developer says it will not pay.

Tesla’s $1.5 billion investment in bitcoin has driven the cryptocurrency’s price to new record highs.

Top Take-Aways

The biggest winner in the meme stock rally saga has now emerged—Reddit, the social media platform used by day traders to coordinate their market strategy, has raised $250 million and doubled its valuation to $6 billion.

Billionaire Masayoshi Son likes to compare his SoftBank Group to a goose that lays golden eggs, and this year Japan’s richest person was able to collect quite a few: SoftBank reported net profit of $11 billion for the quarter ended December.

The family of Alex Kearns, a young Robinhood user who took his own life after seeing a negative cash balance of $730,000 in his account, is suing the brokerage app for wrongful death, negligent infliction of emotional distress and unfair business practices.

“I’m surviving on luck,” says Emile Nelson, a single mother of a 6-year-old. She’s one of more than 2 million women who were forced out of the labor force since the pandemic took hold of America nearly one year ago—a trend that isn’t showing signs of reversing soon.

A court battle is brewing between Twitter and a legal entity over the @callmemoneybags anonymous account, which has posted pictures of women in lavish surroundings, making a connection with billionaire Brian Sheth, the recently departed cofounder of Vista.

Former NEA partner Dayna Grayson has teamed up with former Uber executive Rachel Holt to raise $140 million for their new firm, Construct Capital, for investments in the underserved space of industrial startups.

Signal is a darling of the cybersecurity community for its promise of a secure messaging platform—but court documents obtained by Forbes indicate the FBI has a way of accessing the Signal’s texts even if they’re behind the lockscreen of an iPhone. 

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