Nikesh Arora to step down as SoftBank president

Hired in 2014 after his over 10-year stint at Google, Arora was promoted to president in June last year.

For that, Mr Son, 58, said he needed to stay at the helm for at least another five to ten years.

The former Google executive had a massive role to play in some of SoftBank’s acquisitions, and was also handpicked by founder and CEO Masayoshi Son as his successor.

Arora’s decision to quit, said to be a “joint one”, came barely 24 hours after a special committee comprising independent board members gave him a clean chit related to allegations of questionable transactions, poor investment performance and conflict of interest. “I learnt a lot, sitting with Masa at dinner and chatting about life in the future”.

48-year-old Arora announced this development on micro blogging site Twitter.

Mr. Arora said he will remain as an adviser to SoftBank.

The news however, comes as a bit of a surprise, considering that just yesterday Softbank released a statement, clearing Arora of all investor allegations regarding his current investment strategies and companies he has invested in. And he indicated that SoftBank would continue to invest in India, saying, “Masa is as much an indophile as i am”. He is leaving as he didn’t want to wait a long time for chairman and CEO Masayoshi Son to let him take charge of the Japanese telecommunications and Internet company.

Arora received a salary package of United States dollars 73 million or Rs 500 crore in 2015-16, making him one of the top paid executives in the world for the second straight year. Arora will take on an as yet unspecified advisory role at SoftBank.

Arora, who is responsible for global operations, has led SoftBank’s investments in India in e-commerce firm Snapdeal, ride-hailing service Ola, real-estate website Housing.com, hotel-booking app Oyo Rooms and Grofers.

“I feel my work is not done”, Mr Son said in a statement.

The letter, dated January 20, said that if the boards of SoftBank and Sprint do not announce an investigation within 60 days the investors intend to pursue other remedies, including potential legal action and giving information to government regulators. “Time for me to move on (sic)”. SoftBank entered an agreement to sell its stake in Supercell for a total return of $7.3 billion.