As Nikesh Arora quits, SoftBank will continue its focus on Indian startups

Nikesh Arora stepped down as SoftBank President after shareholders questioned his track record.

However, an internal probe had cleared Arora, who will remain as an advisor to SoftBank.

As per reports, Arora faced flak from shareholders over some deals, his compensation, and few investors even questioned his qualifications.

SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son had chosen Arora and had, reportedly, plans to announce him as his successor.

Arora, a former Google executive, had joined Softbank two years back.

During his stint in Softbank, Arora spent around $4 billion investing in startups around the world.

Arora is also one of the highest-paid corporate executives in the world, receiving $135 million in 2014 and another $73 million last year.

As per news reports, Arora’s resignation was announced a day after SoftBank stated a special committee investigating allegations raised by one group of investors found that the group’s claims were “without merit.”

Arora tweeted he got a clean chit during the review meeting.






Meanwhile, Son said the allegations had nothing to do with Arora’s resignation.

Before joining SoftBank, Arora was an executive at Google Inc and prior to that he was chief marketing officer at T-Mobile Europe.

In SoftBank, Arora sealed a $1 billion bet on Coupang, a South Korean mobile commerce startup, in a deal that was billed at the time as the largest internet investment in South Korea’s history.

It was larger than SoftBank’s deal with Snapdeal and GrabTaxi.

Also, SoftBank had huge India plans and Son had stated the company would invest around $10 billion in 5-10 years.

SoftBank was expected to make first $350 million investment in a solar project in India.

Apart from this, SoftBank also has a joint venture with the Bharti Group, Bharti SoftBank, the investments of which include the mobile application Hike Messenger. Its other investments cover real estate website Housing.com, hotel-booking app Oyo Rooms and Grofers.

SoftBank, Bharti and Foxconn plan to invest in the joint venture called SBG Cleantech.