Ola co-founder Bhavish Aggarwal said in a statement earlier today that he looks forward to engaging with outgoing SoftBank president Nikesh Arora, who would soon be taking up the role of company’s advisor.
The statement said, “Nikesh is such a great friend, guide and mentor to me personally. I am sure he will continue to be a source of support and inspiration to the Indian startup ecosystem. I look forward to engaging with him in his role as an advisor to SoftBank in the time ahead.
It was during Arora’s tenure as the director, president and CEO of SoftBank that the Tokyo-based global technology major invested in Ola.
“SoftBank as an investor has played a key role in Ola’s growth story and we will continue to leverage the vast network and expertise that they bring to us as partners, in our mission of building mobility for a billion Indians,” added Aggarwal.
Just a day after Arora was given a clean chit by SoftBank of which he was the president, the former Google executive tweeted that he will be stepping down.
“Masa 2 continue 2 be CEO for 5-10 years, respect that. Learnt a lot. Clean chit from board after through review. Time for me to move on,” Arora tweeted.
The new press release issued by SBG stated that Arora, representative director, President and Chief Operating Officer of SBG, will assume an advisory role that effective from July 1.
Masayoshi Son said that he will continue to be the CEO for another five to ten years. He said, “Nikesh and I have been partners in creating SoftBank 2.0. He brought world class execution skills to SoftBank, as evidenced in our myriad of investments over the last year, as well as the complex monetization of our Alibaba stake, and most recently our successful sale of Supercell.”
Son even spoke about handing over the driver seat to Arora in the coming years. “He should be 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,” he added.
Nikesh had joined SBG from Google as the CEO in September 2014. During his tenure, SBG invested in a set of groundbreaking growth-stage companies in India like Snapdeal, Ola, Oyo, Grofers, Housing and extended its footprint in Asia successfully.
In May 2015, SoftBank Corp appointed Arora as its new president and SBG’s founder and chairman Masayoshi Son also anointed Nikesh Arora as his possible successor.
The controversy started earlier in 2016 when a group of investors in Japanese telecoms & internet giant SoftBank Group had requested in an 11-page complaint the board to investigate Nikesh Arora’s track record and qualifications as president and heir to billionaire founder Masayoshi Son.
The complaint outlined many things like Arora’s accord as he is a senior adviser in private equity firm Silver Lake, his involvement in past wrongdoings, poor business decisions, and a series of questionable transactions and lastly, it also pointed out that SBG has been paying excessive compensation to him without sufficient disclosure.
The complaint notice also stated that if the boards of SBG and Sprint would not announce an investigation within 60 days, the investors intend to pursue other remedies including potential legal action and giving information to government regulators.
A committee was formed in February which conducted the review with the assistance of independent counsel at Shearman & Sterling and Anderson Mori & Tomotsune. In a statement on Monday, SBG said, “The Special Committee has concluded that the claims concerning the conduct of Arora during his tenure at SBG are without merit.”
