Anyone glancing at Japan-listed internet conglomerate SoftBank’s share price six months ago and today would see relatively little change between the start and end dates.

It has been interesting to be working closely with management experts Boston Consulting Group (BCG) ahead of its forthcoming series of reports on corporate venturing, one to be published at our Global Corporate Venturing Digital Forum on 3-4 June, about how their models estimate likely economic impacts in such uncertain times and what the implications are for different sectors.

Twenty years ago Malcom Gladwell wrote a perceptive essay for the New Yorker magazine on why some people choke and others panic, and how these different responses tended to manifest.

My heart goes out to the business owners and founders who have seen the rug pulled out from under them with this lock-down. Caveat emptor, however, is a useful reminder for governments thinking of bailing out ropey venture-backed portfolio companies especially when banks are chomping at the bit to lend to some of these companies instead.

Apple has reportedly bought NextVR, a US-based virtual reality broadcasting technology developer backed by a host of corporate venturing units, for about $100m.

It is hard to find points of light at a time when American unemployment claims hit a record 6.6m last week, on top of 3.3m the week before, due to the economic disruption caused by coronavirus.

Let’s see…

There are plenty of reasons to sell or give up stakes in startups currently – usually cashflow related, hopefully profitably after an acquisition or flotation and sometimes chucked in the bin after bankruptcy. Rarely for ethical reasons.

American firms have a long history of running into competition concerns when trying to buy UK-based chipmaker Plessey.

It is the sort of line to awaken the curiosity in an annual report: “Cash payments to acquire equity investments amounted to £258m [$314m] (2018 – £309m), primarily relating to Lyell Immunopharma.”