SoftBank International CEO announces exit

SoftBank has announced that Marcelo Claure, the CEO of SoftBank Group International (SBGI) and the COO of SoftBank Group Corporation, will exit the company.

Marcelo Claure / Photo credit: SoftBank

“I am particularly grateful to Masayoshi Son, who gave me the opportunity to thrive at SoftBank and served as a mentor and friend during my tenure,” Claure said in a statement.

Michel Combes, who served as president of SBGI, has been appointed as its CEO following Claure’s departure.

Combes joined SBGI in April 2020 and served on boards of directors at SoftBank portfolio companies such as WeWork, OneWeb, SoFi Technologies, Contentsquare, Jellysmack, and Swile.

Before SoftBank, Combes was the CEO of US-based telecommunications firm Sprint. He also helmed other telecommunications companies such as Altice, Alcatel-Lucent, and Vodafone Europe.

A close aide and a fallout

Claure, who spent nearly nine years at SoftBank, had risen through the ranks to become a close confidant of CEO Masayoshi Son. He also played a major role in SoftBank’s deals with startups like Uber and WeWork.

“Claure helped lead highly consequential projects over the last several years, including the turnaround of Sprint and the T-Mobile/Sprint merger, the successful repositioning of WeWork, the launch of Latin America’s largest venture capital fund, and the launch of the SB Opportunity Fund to invest in underrepresented racial minorities,” SoftBank added in the statement.

In recent months, Claure found himself at loggerheads with Son over compensation for his work, which includes the listing of the struggling WeWork.

According to reports, Claure had sought nearly US$2 billion in compensation over the next few years. Son and other SoftBank executives, however, wanted to shell out a much smaller sum.

Interestingly, Claure was already one of the highest-paid executives at SoftBank, having reportedly made US$17 million in 2020.