In shock move, Softbank president Nikesh Arora steps down

Photo credit: Eirik Solheim.

In a shock move, Softbank president Nikesh Arora is stepping down, he announced this evening.

Nikesh, once said to be in line to succeed Softbank founder Masayoshi Son as the CEO of the Japanese telco giant, confirmed the move on his Twitter.

Masa 2 continue 2 be CEO for 5-10 years, respect that. Learnt a lot. Clean chit from board after through review. Time for me to move on.

— Nikesh Arora (@nikesharora) June 21, 2016

It comes only hours after a special committee of independent members of Softbank’s board of directors said it found no merit in the claims of wrongdoing levelled at Nikesh in the past few months. The controversy stems from a group of shareholders that had questioned his track record and qualifications for the job. They pointed to a conflict of interest in Nikesh’s role as advisor to a private equity firm and demanded his dismissal.

But Son himself backed Nikesh earlier today after the committee gave its verdict. “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,” Son said.

Softbank poached Nikesh from Google, where he was chief business officer, in mid-2014.

Still friends

Softbank just released a statement (PDF) saying that Nikesh begins an “advisory role” at the company on July 1. “Nikesh and I have been partners in creating SoftBank 2.0,” said Son. “He has been able to help think through our vision, future growth plans and articulate the SoftBank strategy. He brought world class execution skills to SoftBank, as evidenced in our myriad of investments over the last year, as well as the complex monetization of our Alibaba stake, and most recently our successful sale of Supercell. I am indebted to him for his contributions.”

“Nikesh and I have decided that he would move to an advisory role and continue to support SoftBank, while he zeroes in on his next challenge. He will continue to be friend of SoftBank, and I will have my hand on his shoulder,” the boss added.

Tencent acquired Supercell earlier today for US$8.6 billion, buying the entirety of Softbank’s 73.2 percent stake in the Finnish game developer behind the smash-hit Clash of Clans.

See: Something doesn’t add up in Nikesh Arora’s sudden exit from SoftBank