Softbank President Nikesh Arora resigns

Mumbai, June 21

Nikesh Arora, President and COO of Japanese multinational internet and telecommunications corporation Softbank, resigned from his position in the company a day after an internal committee found him not guilty of allegations of financial irregularities.

He will however continue in an advisory role for a year.  

"SoftBank Group Corp (SBG) announces the resignation of Nikesh Arora, Representative Director, President & COO, from the position of Representative Director and Director of SBG with the expiration of the term of office at the conclusion on of the 36th Annual General Meeting of Shareholders," SoftBank said in a statement.

The meeting is scheduled on June 22.

Arora, a former Google executive touted to be Softbank's heir apparent, wrote on microblogging site Twitter: “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 (sic)”. 

The development comes after the company's founder Masayoshi Son made it clear that he would not retire anytime soon.

"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. This will require me to be CEO for at least another five to ten years — this is not a time frame for me to keep Nikesh waiting for the top job," he said in a statement.

The development comes a day after the company cleared him of charges of financial misdealings. The company announced on Monday that its committe had cleared Arora of some sharholders' allegations against him — including  those questioning his conduct and qualifications — were without meirt. 

 Arora had joined SoftBank as its vice-chairman and CEO of SB Group US — previously SoftBank Internet and Media Inc — in September 2014 from search giant Google. — Agencies