SoftBank founder and CEO Masayoshi Son said today that he will be leaving the board of Jack Ma’s Alibaba Group after holding the position for nearly 15 years.
The announcement comes a month after Ma formally stepped down from SoftBank’s board of directors, a position he had held for 13 years.
Masayoshi Son / Photo credit: SoftBank
Son made the announcement during SoftBank’s annual general meeting of shareholders, assuring them that the move was not a result of any disagreement. He also said he plans to continue serving as SoftBank’s CEO for the next seven to eight years.
During the meeting, Son noted that the equity value of SoftBank’s assets had returned to pre-Covid-19 numbers. The rebound is partly due to an increase in the company’s Alibaba shareholding.
In its May earnings release, SoftBank reported an operating loss of around US$13 billion for full-year 2019, falling by US$31.7 billion year on year.
The result was pulled down by a US$17.7 billion loss on valuation from investments held by its Vision Fund. As of the fiscal year-end, SoftBank had US$75 billion in investments across 88 companies that are worth US$69.6 billion.
SoftBank said the fair values of its big-ticket bets Uber and WeWork, as well as its other portfolio companies, dove during the fourth fiscal quarter primarily due to the economic effects of the Covid-19 pandemic.
However, the tech investor said during today’s meeting that the demand brought by Covid-19 has boosted the value of Vision Fund’s investments in Chinese firms, which include the healthtech startup Ping An Good Doctor and TikTok operator ByteDance.
Editing by Charmaine de Lazo
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