New Delhi: Under fire from investors, Nikesh Arora, one of world’s highest paid executive, on Tuesday announced his resignation as the president and COO of Japanese conglomerate SoftBank.
India-born Arora, 48, touted as heir-apparent at SoftBank, said that he can’t be “CEO-in-waiting past his sell-by date” as current chief Masayoshi Son (58-years old) wanted to continue for five to 10 years more. However, he will remain as an adviser to SoftBank.
“He (Mr Arora) should be the CEO of a global business, and I had hoped to hand over the reins of SoftBank to him on my 60th birthday, but I feel my work is not done. I want to cement SoftBank 2.0, develop Sprint to its true potential and work on a few more crazy ideas. This will require me to be CEO for at least another five to ten years — this is not a time frame for me to keep Nikesh waiting for the top job,” said Mr Son. He clarified that Mr Arora’s departure had nothing to do with shareholder criticism of his track record , which SoftBank this week said was unfounded.
