Sep 27, 2018

Opendoor raises $400 million from SoftBank Vision fund

Kia Kokalitcheva

Opendoor, a startup that buys and sells homes, said Thursday that it raised $400 million from SoftBank's Vision Fund, plus an additional $2 billion in debt financing from undisclosed banks. A source tells Axios that the equity valuation was north of $2 billion.

Why it matters: Opendoor is one of Silicon Valley's most daring bets, due to the risk it would face from a real estate market downturn.

  • Opendoor says it currently holds onto a house for an average of 90 days.

In addition to investing into its own home buying and selling services to customers, Opendoor is working on tools for buyers of non-Opendoor homes, says co-founder and CEO Eric Wu. He declined to share more details about how the company will do this, other than point to its recent acquisition of Los Angeles-based Open Listings.

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Courtenay Brown

Stocks fall 4% as sell-off worsens

A trader on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange. Photo: Johannes Eisele/AFP via Getty Images

Stocks fell more than 4% on Thursday, extending the market’s worst week since the financial crisis in 2008 following a spike in coronavirus cases around the world.

The big picture: All three indices are in correction, down over 10% from recent record-highs, amid a global market rout. It's the S&P 500's quickest decline into correction territory in the index's history, per Deutsche Bank.

Keep ReadingArrowUpdated 15 mins ago - Economy & Business
Axios

Coronavirus updates: California monitors 8,400 potential cases

Data: The Center for Systems Science and Engineering at Johns Hopkins, the CDC, and China's Health Ministry. Note: China numbers are for the mainland only and U.S. numbers include repatriated citizens.

33 people in California have tested positive for the coronavirus, and health officials are monitoring 8,400 people who have recently returned from "points of concern," Gov. Gavin Newsom said Thursday.

The big picture: COVID-19 has killed more than 2,800 people and infected over 82,000 others in some 50 countries and territories. The novel coronavirus is now affecting every continent but Antarctica, and the WHO said Wednesday the number of new cases reported outside China has exceeded those inside the country for the first time.

Go deeperArrowUpdated 1 hour ago - Health
Orion Rummler

Watchdog opens probe into VA secretary over handling of sexual assault claim

VA Secretary Robert Wilkie on Fox Business Network’s "The Evening Edit" on Jan. 7. Photo: Steven Ferdman/Getty Images

The Department of Veterans Affairs Inspector General Michael Missal said Thursday he had opened an investigation into VA Secretary Robert Wilkie after lawmakers demanded an inquiry into his handling of a sexual misconduct report, the Washington Post reports.

Context: Wilkie allegedly "worked to discredit" the credibility of Democratic aide and veteran Andrea Goldstein after she reported last fall "that a man groped and propositioned her in the main lobby of the agency's D.C. Medical Center," a senior VA official told the Post.

Go deeperArrow2 hours ago - Politics & Policy