GM to buy SoftBank’s stake in Cruise self-driving unit

GM to buy SoftBank’s stake in Cruise self-driving unit

DETROIT – is acquiring SoftBank Vision Fund 1's equity ownership stake in its majority-owned Cruise autonomous vehicle unit for $2.1 billion, the automaker announced Friday afternoon. Softbank first acquired a minority ownership in Cruise through a $2.25 billion deal in 2018. Its exit comes as the prominent technology investment firm was set to have to invest a second tranche of $1.35 billion as part of the deal upon Cruise's commercial deployment of vehicles, which GM will now pay. It also follows Cruise CEO Dan Ammann in December. Ammann was reportedly let go from Cruise by GM CEO and Chair Mary Barra, who also chairs Cruise's board, over including when to take the company public. GM has signaled it plans to keep the company public for the foreseeable future. Ammann's successor, on tweeted Friday that an IPO would be a "major distraction, especially right now" as the company is scaling up its newly-launched driverless ride-hailing service in San Francisco. The SoftBank announcement was made as GM and Cruise also announced announcing the launch of a "Recurring Liquidity Opportunity Program", in which Cruise employees with vested stock options will be able to sell them to GM. "Employees can sell as many vested