Business this week

SoftBank reported an annual net loss of ¥962bn ($8.8bn), mostly because of bad investments its Vision Fund made in WeWork, Uber, Didi and other tech firms. The Japanese conglomerate might not pay a dividend to shareholders for the first time since becoming a public company in 1994. Jack Ma, the founder of Alibaba, a Chinese internet giant, is to step down from SoftBank’s board as a director, an unexpected departure from a position he held for 13 years. SoftBank was an early investor in Alibaba and may use its stake in the company to fund a share buy-back programme. See article.