SoftBank Group Corp. founder Masayoshi Son ended his company’s annual shareholder meeting with a surprise Thursday by announcing he’s stepping down from the board of Chinese e-commerce titan Alibaba Group Holding Ltd, as per an agency report.
Masayoshi Son, chairman of SoftBank Group and Jack Ma, former chairman of Alibaba Group
Tokyo: Son also mounted a defence of his investing decisions saying the value of the Japanese conglomerate’s holdings has recovered to pre-coronavirus outbreak levels. “We have worried a lot of people who thought that SoftBank is finished or is ‘SoftPunku’,” Son told a shareholder meeting, using a play on
the word “puncture” used colloquially in Japanese when something is broken. The rise in corporate value was driven by the growth of SoftBank’s stake is Chinese e-comm giant Alibaba Group Holding Ltd and following the merger of its US wireless unit Sprint with T-Mobile US Inc.
Son said he has reduced his compensation following SoftBank’s poor financial performance but defended the high pay for executives such as Rajeev Misra, head of the conglomerate’s $100 billion Vision Fund which recorded a 1.9 trillion yen operating loss. Other Japanese corporates should overhaul compensation schemes to reward risk-taking, Son said.
“What are you scared of?” he said during the presentation. The shareholder meeting saw the appointment of new board directors including entrepreneur Lip-Bu Tan, who was elected in the face of the opposition of proxy adviser Glass Lewis. SoftBank has formed a committee to oversee nomination and compensation of board directors, to be chaired by outside director Masami Iijima, chairman of trading house Mitsui & Co. Son also said he is stepping down from the board of Alibaba, following Alibaba co-founder Jack Ma’s departure from SoftBank’s board. The billionaire said this shouldn’t be interpreted as signifying any disagreements. Ma and Son have maintained a close friendship since the Japanese entrepreneur was an early investor in Alibaba and helped it along to its current value of roughly $600 bn, calling it the crown jewel of SoftBank’s portfolio. The 62-year-old businessman has previously said he will hand over management at SoftBank to a successor in his sixties. “I may go a little beyond that,” Son said
the word “puncture” used colloquially in Japanese when something is broken. The rise in corporate value was driven by the growth of SoftBank’s stake is Chinese e-comm giant Alibaba Group Holding Ltd and following the merger of its US wireless unit Sprint with T-Mobile US Inc.
Son said he has reduced his compensation following SoftBank’s poor financial performance but defended the high pay for executives such as Rajeev Misra, head of the conglomerate’s $100 billion Vision Fund which recorded a 1.9 trillion yen operating loss. Other Japanese corporates should overhaul compensation schemes to reward risk-taking, Son said.
“What are you scared of?” he said during the presentation. The shareholder meeting saw the appointment of new board directors including entrepreneur Lip-Bu Tan, who was elected in the face of the opposition of proxy adviser Glass Lewis. SoftBank has formed a committee to oversee nomination and compensation of board directors, to be chaired by outside director Masami Iijima, chairman of trading house Mitsui & Co. Son also said he is stepping down from the board of Alibaba, following Alibaba co-founder Jack Ma’s departure from SoftBank’s board. The billionaire said this shouldn’t be interpreted as signifying any disagreements. Ma and Son have maintained a close friendship since the Japanese entrepreneur was an early investor in Alibaba and helped it along to its current value of roughly $600 bn, calling it the crown jewel of SoftBank’s portfolio. The 62-year-old businessman has previously said he will hand over management at SoftBank to a successor in his sixties. “I may go a little beyond that,” Son said