Leaked memo sent by SoftBank's Vision Fund CEO defends 2 senior execs at the heart of a blistering Businessweek report

Vision Fund chief executive Rajeev Misra defended chief financial officer Navneet Govil and managing partner Jeff Housenbold after a blistering Bloomberg Businessweek report earlier this week.
Misra wrote that the report contained "unsubstantiated and reckless personal attacks on our employees," and that the firm is "taking the appropriate next steps, including potential legal action."
A spokesperson for Bloomberg News told Business Insider "we stand by our reporting."
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SoftBank's Vision Fund is circling the wagons around two senior executives and defending their investments following a blistering report in Bloomberg Businessweek that purported to describe the firm's culture and investment track record.

In a memo to staff, Vision Fund chief executive Rajeev Misra defended chief financial officer Navneet Govil and managing partner Jeff Housenbold and criticized Bloomberg's report as containing "unsubstantiated and reckless personal attacks on our employees." Misra said the company may pursue legal action.

"Businessweek's portrayal of our culture is inaccurate and based on unsubstantiated claims by anonymous sources," a SoftBank spokesperson said in response to an inquiry from Business Insider. "It seems clear that the reporters were under pressure to sensationalize the story for the cover of their magazine."

A spokesperson for Bloomberg News told Business Insider "we stand by our reporting."

Misra sent the 600-word missive to all SoftBank Vision Fund employees on Dec. 20, according to the memo seen by Business Insider.

He stressed that "fostering a strong, respectful, and supportive culture is of the highest priority" of SoftBank and "at the heart of our long-term success."

Misra then slammed Bloomberg for its editorial approach to the SoftBank feature story in Businessweek, which ran two days ago under the headline, "SoftBank Vision Fund Employees Depict a Culture of Recklessness." He wrote that SoftBank held discussions with Bloomberg reporters and senior editors and that they "failed to produce supporting evidence" about claims regarding Govil and Housenbold.

Below is the full memo provided to Business Insider.

Team,

As you know, fostering a strong, respectful, and supportive culture is of the highest priority and at the heart of our long-term success. We have grown incredibly quickly over the last two and a half years. Clearly, we've made some mistakes along the way, as we've acknowledged. We're learning, and we welcome scrutiny. But we can't accept unsubstantiated and reckless personal attacks on our employees.

While there were many issues with the reporting in yesterday's Bloomberg Businessweek story, we're compelled to address the serious allegations made against Jeff and Navneet. Both are highly valued members of our executive leadership team. The claims in the story are anonymous and unsubstantiated, and we're appalled that Jeff and Navneet have been subjected to these personal attacks. We have held a number of discussions with the Bloomberg reporters and the publication's most senior editors, who have failed to produce supporting evidence while ignoring facts that proved many of their allegations to be baseless.

For example, the piece alleges that Navneet made multiple derogatory comments in front of colleagues. These anonymous reported comments are inaccurate. Bloomberg ignored the evidence that we presented to them and published these comments with no sources.

More evidence of inaccuracy is Bloomberg's suggestion that Jeff has "gotten away with some questionable behavior." Jeff has a strong work ethic and operates with high integrity. Jeff strongly denies the quote regarding the marketing of Peloton, and nothing of the sort was ever reported to HR. When Bloomberg was pushed to provide more details about this meeting, they were unable to do so. In the Guardant example, we conducted an internal review and Jeff did everything by the book.

The story also reported that Jeff has a "spotty investment record," which is unequivocally false. Jeff has led 13 investments at the Vision Fund. While two of those investments have been marked down, Jeff's portfolio is up several billion dollars in less than two years and is one of the strongest performing in Fund 1. This information was also shared with Bloomberg, who failed to incorporate it.

SoftBank has an unacceptably small number of women CEOs in its portfolio, which is a challenge we are working hard to address. This is one of the reasons why we introduced our Connect and Lead event, which has helped accelerate the careers of more than 150 women leaders from across the Vision Fund's ecosystem. Jeff has been a strong champion of women and underrepresented minorities, and he has led by action by backing our first two women CEOs and our first African American CEO. It was unfortunate to have two women CEOs in our portfolio resign, but to suggest Jeff's support for these steps was motivated by anything other than business considerations is incorrect and unfair.

It's worth noting that Jeff and Navneet have been strong advocates of diversity and inclusion throughout their careers, and both lead teams that are ~50% female compared to ~10% for most venture firms. More broadly, we have worked hard to create an environment that celebrates the diversity of knowledge, background, and experience from across our global business.

We're far from perfect, but the culture Bloomberg tried to paint is just inaccurate. It seems clear that the reporters were under pressure to sensationalize the story for the cover of their magazine. Bloomberg's decision to publish disparaging allegations against our employees without providing any evidence was extraordinary and wrong. We expect more from a publication like Businessweek.

The firm is fully supportive of Jeff and Navneet, and we are taking the appropriate next steps, including potential legal action.

Rajeev

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