SoftBank's Masayoshi Son is stepping down from Alibaba's board as he focuses on shoring up SoftBank's shaky finances
- SoftBank's Masayoshi Son is stepping down from the board of Alibaba, he announced in a shareholder call on Wednesday.
- Son was one of Alibaba's earliest backers, making a $20 million investment in the company two decades ago that was worth $60 billion by 2014. He said he will remain a "long-term investor."
- He's now focused on righting SoftBank's financials, which have taken a hit from COVID-19 and from several bets on tech startups that tanked in the past year.
- Son said he will take a 50% pay cut this year as SoftBank recovers from its losses.
SoftBank founder and CEO Masayoshi Son is resigning from Alibaba's board as he focuses his attention on shoring up SoftBank's troubled financials, he said in a shareholder call Wednesday.
Son said the departure is amicable and that SoftBank will remain a "long-term investor" in Alibaba, which was one of its earliest and most successful bets. Son invested $20 million in the Chinese retailer in 2000; that investment was worth more than $60 billion by the time Alibaba went public in 2014.
Meanwhile, Son aimed to assuage SoftBank investors' concerns on the call Wednesday, arguing that SoftBank's financials are looking up after a period of turmoil. SoftBank reported on operating loss of $12.7 billion for the past year, which Son attributed to the COVID-19 pandemic and to a series of bets that didn't pan out.
One of those bets was WeWork, which SoftBank reportedly poured $18.5 billion into before its failed IPO last year. SoftBank ultimately gave WeWork a $2.9 billion valuation in March, down from $47 billion in 2019.
"The responsibility is all mine," Son told shareholders, adding that he's cutting his salary this year from $1.9 million to just under $1 million. "I pushed though and that is my responsibility. I should take a pay cut."
But Son said that SoftBank's financials are on the mend, and that the value of its holdings rose to roughly $280 billion this week from $262 billion last month.