Sprint parent company Softbank Corp. on Tuesday said its president and COO Nikesh Arora will step down from his leadership role and assume an advisory position, effective July 1.
Arora, a former Google executive, was recruited by Softbank CEO Masayoshi Son two years ago to be Son’s successor. On Tuesday, however, Son said he was planning to remain at Softbank’s helm longer than originally expected. Son said Arora “should be CEO of a global business,” but should not be kept waiting in line at Softbank while Son finishes up his legacy projects.
“I had hoped to hand over the reins of SoftBank to (Arora) on my 60th birthday – but I feel my work is not done,” Son said in a statement. “I want to cement SoftBank 2.0, develop Sprint to its true potential and work on a few more crazy ideas. This will require me to be CEO for at least another five to ten years – this is not a time frame for me to keep Nikesh waiting for the top job.”
The move comes amid increasing criticism of Arora from Softbank’s investors, who have questioned his qualifications, compensation and decisions to invest nearly $4 billion in startups during his tenure.
According to Softbank, Arora had a hand in investments in growth-stage companies in India like Snapdeal, Ola, Oyo, Grofers and Housing, as well as mobile e-commerce company Coupang in Korea and ride-share company Grab in Southeast Asia. Arora was also key in Softbank’s recent sale of a portion of its Alibaba stock and stake in Supercell, the company said. The latter two transactions resulted in a total return of $7.3 billion, Softbank said.
Tuesday’s decision comes just a day after Softbank announced a special committee from its Board of Directors had investigated and found claims against Arora raised by one group of investors to be “without merit.”
Softbank release did not say what Arora’s next move would be, only that he would “continue to support SoftBank while he zeroes in on his next challenge.”
