Alibaba’s Jack Ma, SoftBank’s Masayoshi Son part ways

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