I have complete trust in Nikesh Arora, says Masayoshi Son after SoftBank probe

Photo credit: Eirik Solheim.

SoftBank has dismissed allegations made by some of its investors against president and COO Nikesh Arora, who is second in command to billionaire founder Masayoshi Son. A special committee of independent members of its board of directors formed to investigate the charges has found no merit in the “claims concerning the conduct of Mr Arora.”

“As I said when these allegations first became public, I have complete trust in Nikesh and I am pleased the special committee has looked into these claims thoroughly and concluded they are without merit,” says Masayoshi Son.

A group of shareholders had questioned Nikesh’s track record and qualifications as SoftBank president and heir apparent to Masayoshi Son. A letter to the SoftBank board from American law firm Boies Schiller & Flexner, claiming to represent the unidentified investors, had pointed to a conflict of interest in Nikesh’s role as advisor to a private equity firm and demanded his dismissal.

The SoftBank special committee was formed in response to this and conducted its review with the assistance of independent counsel at Shearman & Sterling LLP and Anderson Mori & Tomotsune.

Mutual admiration

Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) grad Nikesh Arora migrated to the US for higher studies followed by a stellar career. He joined Google in 2004 and rose to the position of chief business officer, next in importance only to co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin and chairman Eric Schmidt. He was at Google for 10 years and it was in that period that he became an advisor to private equity firm Silver Lake.

Nikesh joined SoftBank in 2014 and quickly became a favorite of Masayoshi Son as the Japanese telco giant pressed ahead with globalization. The same year SoftBank entered India with large investments in Snapdeal and Ola, following its success with Alibaba in China. “He’s 10 years younger than me, and he has more abilities than me,” said Masayoshi Son, while naming Nikesh Arora as his successor.

Nikesh reciprocated last year with a US$482 million investment into SoftBank shares from his personal savings. “My past year with the SoftBank Group has been very rewarding. As a measure of my commitment, I have decided to take a personal bet on the SoftBank Group and ensure an alignment of vision, with our founder and chairman and CEO Masayoshi Son,” he had said.

See: Who is Nikesh Arora, and why do some SoftBank investors hate him so much?