Nikesh Arora appointed as SoftBank President

Japan’s SoftBank Corp unveiled a management reshuffle on Monday, appointing investments head Nikesh Arora as president.

Also named him as a potential successor to CEO Masayoshi Son, as the telecoms conglomerate steps up its overseas expansion.

• Arora, 47, is presently SoftBank’s vice-chairman leading the group’s internet investment arm.
• Mr. Son’s promotion of Mr. Arora from vice chairman to president of the company appears to indicate a new investment emphasis, in what Mr. Son called a “systematic approach to supporting our group of disruptive entrepreneurs.”
• So far, SoftBank has been a hybrid when it comes to investments, owning the third-largest mobile-phone service providers in both Japan and the U.S.
• But it has been investing much smaller sums in fledgling Internet and technology companies.
• For its fiscal fourth quarter, SoftBank said its net profit jumped to ¥88.91 billion from ¥20.41 billion, while its revenue rose to ¥2.24 trillion from ¥2.10 trillion.
• He said SoftBank will be renamed SoftBank Group Corp.

About Soft Bank :

• It is a Japanese multinational telecommunications and Internet corporation, with operations in broadband, fixed-line telecommunications, e-commerce, Internet, technology services, finance, media and marketing, and other businesses.
• It was established in 1981.
• Headquartered in Tokyo.
• SoftBank was the 86th largest company in the world by market capitalization.
• Masayoshi Son – Chairman & CEO.
• SoftBank celebrated its 30th anniversary in 2010.

Softbank and India :

It has funneled about a billion dollars across three Indian tech startups

1. Ola
2. Snapdeal
3. Housing

Subsidiaries of Softbank :

• SoftBank Mobile (with the Share of 99.99%)
• Sprint Corporation (80%)
• SB Creative
• Yahoo! Japan (35%)
• GungHo Online Entertainment (58.5%)
• Alibaba Group (37%)

About Nikesh Arora :

• He was Senior Vice President and Chief Business Officer of Google Inc. (Google) since January 2011 until July 2014.
• Arora worked as Chief Marketing Officer of  Bharti Airtel, Europe
• He served as Chief Marketing Officer of the T-Mobile International Division of Deutsche Telekom AG.
• He served on the board of directors at Colgate-Palmolive Company.
• At Google, he oversaw the company’s biggest moneymaker, the sale of advertising linked to its search engine.
• He joined Softbank last year as Vice-Chairman.