Japanese conglomerate SoftBank announced that Alibaba founder Jack Ma will resign as a board director on June 25.
Jack Ma / Photo credit: Alibaba
It is now proposing the appointment of three new board members, including SoftBank chief financial officer Yoshimitsu Goto. Other candidates are Lip-Bu Tan, the CEO of US-based chipmaker Cadence and the founder of venture capital firm Walden International, and Waseda Business School professor Yuko Kawamoto.
SoftBank also announced its plans to repurchase up to 500 billion yen (US$4.7 billion) worth of its own stock from today to March 2021, which is on top of a US$41 billion repurchase program it announced in March, according to a statement.
“The buyback announcement is a surprise, given the slew of low expectations and bad news,” Justin Tang, head of Asian research at United First Partners, told Bloomberg.
The company earlier said that it was expecting a US$12 billion operating loss for the year ended March 31, 2020 as its tech investments decline in value and the market deteriorates. It has forecast a US$16.7 billion loss on its Vision Fund and a US$7.4 billion loss on other investments.
Many of its big tech bets have been hard hit by the Covid-19 pandemic. Indian budget hotel chain Oyo has furloughed or placed its employees on temporary leave as it saw its revenue and occupancies drop by up to 60%. Uber has also laid off about 3,700 employees as it sees lower trip volumes in its ride-hailing segment.
Embattled WeWork, meanwhile, filed a lawsuit as SoftBank backed out from its US$3 billion tender offer, which was part of the tech investor’s rescue package for the co-working firm.
SoftBank is set to report its FY 2019 earnings today.
Currency converted from Japanese yen to US dollar: US$1 = 107.12 yen.
Editing by Charmaine de Lazo
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