• Home
  • Latest
  • Fortune 500
  • Finance
  • Tech
  • Leadership
  • Lifestyle
  • Rankings
  • Multimedia

Trendingnow

1

The millennial generation has split, new Fed research shows: Those over 35 are edging toward boomer-style wealth, while everyone else falls behind

2

Scott Bessent casually says the U.S. has more than $1 trillion in gold—and that it doesn’t matter for the dollar

3

Mark Cuban says he has the solution to growing income inequality, and it's to reward every employee—from CEO to janitor—with company stock

1

The millennial generation has split, new Fed research shows: Those over 35 are edging toward boomer-style wealth, while everyone else falls behind

2

Scott Bessent casually says the U.S. has more than $1 trillion in gold—and that it doesn’t matter for the dollar

3

Mark Cuban says he has the solution to growing income inequality, and it's to reward every employee—from CEO to janitor—with company stock
TechSoftbank

SoftBank Shareholder Criticizes President Nikesh Arora

By
Erin Griffith
Erin Griffith
Down Arrow Button Icon
By
Erin Griffith
Erin Griffith
Down Arrow Button Icon
April 23, 2016, 1:06 PM ET
SoftBank leaders special lecture
SoftBank Chairman & CEO Masayoshi Son and group President & COO Nikesh Arora attend companys special lecture in Tokyo, Japan on October 22, 2015. SoftBank Chairman & CEO Masayoshi Son and group President & COO Nikesh Arora discuss the SoftBank Group's Global Strategy, Leadership and other themes in a special fireside lecture (without fire) as part of the SoftBank Academia series. Via the series, which is also broadcast via webcast, SoftBank hopes to inspire and recruit potential leaders of the company. (Photo by Shingo Ito/AFLO)Photograph by Shingo Ito — AFLO
Add Fortune on Google for similar content.

A group of SoftBank shareholders, led by a Swiss consultant named Nicolas Giannakopoulos, has called for an internal investigation of company president Nikesh Arora, according to Bloomberg.

A “sharply critical” letter sent by the shareholders to SoftBank in January accuses Arora, the Japanese telecom giant’s second-in-command, of making bad deals, earning too much money, and having conflicts of interest. But absent of some misconduct that the shareholders have not yet revealed, it appears to be a flimsy set of allegations. (Via email, Giannakopoulos directed me to an associate who did not respond to request for comment.)

Regarding the bad deals, Arora’s mandate was initially to make investments in media and entertainment companies. One of those deals, DramaFever, didn’t pan out, and SoftBank has since sold it. When Arora was promoted to president, he began investing in mature tech startups, mostly in emerging markets. One of those deals, Housing.com, has been a failure. It’s too soon to tell how well SoftBank will fare on the rest of Arora’s deals, which include highly valued startups such as SoFi, Ola Cabs, SnapDeal, and Oyo Rooms. Venture capital investments, even at the late stage in which SoftBank is investing, can take years to pay off.

But the biggest reason the “bad deal” argument is flimsy is because SoftBank’s founder and CEO Masayoshi Son is himself an erratic dealmaker. He is known for taking big, bold risks, which sometimes create big rewards, as with SoftBank’s investment in the Japanese arm of Vodafone, and which sometimes nearly tank the company, as happened during the tech bubble crash of 2001.

Regarding the excessive pay, Arora does not come cheap. To align his interests with SoftBank’s, last year he took on personal debt to buy $483 million worth of SoftBank stock. He can also take some credit for SoftBank’s 500 billion yen share buyback, which has helped boost the company’s slumping share price this year.

Lastly, Giannakopoulos’ group has accused Arora of a potential conflict of interest with private equity firm Silver Lake. Silicon Valley is so clubby and interconnected that every power player seems to have ten different conflicts so, when conflicts arise, the Conflicted Ones recuse themselves from negotiations. Regardless of whether a conflict exists, the mere appearance of one can lead to problems. Activist investor Carl Icahn used that argument against Marc Andreessen to split up eBay (EBAY) and PayPal (PYPL).

Arora has defended his advisory role at Silver Lake, telling Bloomberg he only spends 10 to 20 hours a year advising the firm and that he may end the relationship when his contract ends. That lines up with what he told me last year, as part of a profile I wrote in November. I asked Arora who he turns to for advice. He mentioned Yahoo (YHOO) founder Jerry Yang, his boss Masayoshi Son, and Egon Durban, a managing partner and managing director at Silver Lake. I asked which companies he advises at Silver Lake. His response is below:

Oh, I don’t do any companies. I met Egon in London 11 years ago, he had just moved there. I had just gotten off of an advisory gig at Apax because I didn’t feel like I had connected, so I said, “No I’m not doing it anymore.” A Spencer Stuart headhunter who helped me hire all the people for my first startup said, “Look, you have to meet this guy.” So I met Egon.

I said, “I don’t want to do board meetings, I don’t want to sit in rooms, I don’t want to be bored to death.” He said, “It’s very simple. I’ll call you for advice when I need you and if you are not conflicted, you tell me what you think. And if you’re conflicted, just tell me, ‘I’m conflicted’ and I won’t ask.” So that’s the arrangement.

About the Author
By Erin Griffith
See full bioRight Arrow Button Icon
Add Fortune on Google for similar content.

Latest in Tech

Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025

Most Popular

Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Fortune Secondary Logo
Rankings
  • 100 Best Companies
  • Fortune 500
  • Global 500
  • Fortune 500 Europe
  • Most Powerful Women
  • World's Most Admired Companies
  • See All Rankings
  • Lists Calendar
Sections
  • Finance
  • Fortune Crypto
  • Features
  • Leadership
  • Health
  • Commentary
  • Success
  • Retail
  • Mpw
  • Tech
  • Lifestyle
  • CEO Initiative
  • Asia
  • Politics
  • Conferences
  • Europe
  • Newsletters
  • Personal Finance
  • Environment
  • Magazine
  • Education
Customer Support
  • Frequently Asked Questions
  • Customer Service Portal
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms Of Use
  • Single Issues For Purchase
  • International Print
Commercial Services
  • Advertising
  • Fortune Brand Studio
  • Fortune Analytics
  • Fortune Conferences
  • Business Development
  • Group Subscriptions
About Us
  • About Us
  • Press Center
  • Work At Fortune
  • Terms And Conditions
  • Site Map
  • About Us
  • Press Center
  • Work At Fortune
  • Terms And Conditions
  • Site Map
  • Facebook icon
  • Twitter icon
  • LinkedIn icon
  • Instagram icon
  • TikTok icon
  • YouTube icon

Latest in Tech

AMD’s Lisa Su defends open-source AI following Hugging Face security breach caused by OpenAI agents
AIAdvanced Micro Devices
AMD’s Lisa Su defends open-source AI following Hugging Face security breach caused by OpenAI agents
By Sebastian HerreraJuly 23, 2026
1 hour ago
Alphabet Inc. and Google CEO Sundar Pichai speaks during the inauguration of a Google Artificial Intelligence (AI) hub in Paris on February 15, 2024. (
Big TechWall Street
AI is forcing Big Tech to do something it’s never done: Spend more than it earns, and Wall Street hates it
By Eva RoytburgJuly 23, 2026
2 hours ago
Innovaccer's founders sit in chairs on a stage
AIData
Innovaccer’s CEO walked away from Disney and NASA to fix healthcare’s data mess. Now the startup has crossed $200 million in ARR
By Lily Mae LazarusJuly 23, 2026
2 hours ago
cc
AISocial Media
Coke on its rebrand accidentally nailing Gen Z’s ‘fridge cigarette’ joke: ‘building on on the things people already know and love’
By Tatiana SatauaJuly 23, 2026
3 hours ago
Photo of Mark Zuckerberg
AIMark Zuckerberg
‘Call us whatever the hell you want’: Mark Zuckerberg just launched an AI optimism blitz using nostalgia to sell Meta’s AI future amid backlash
By Mia OsmonbekovJuly 23, 2026
4 hours ago
bots
AIAI agents
Turns out Dead Internet Theory was right: AI agents are eating the Web, growing by nearly 8,000% and rewiring the Internet’s business model
By Mia OsmonbekovJuly 23, 2026
4 hours ago

Most Popular

The millennial generation has split, new Fed research shows: Those over 35 are edging toward boomer-style wealth, while everyone else falls behind
Real Estate
The millennial generation has split, new Fed research shows: Those over 35 are edging toward boomer-style wealth, while everyone else falls behind
By Nick LichtenbergJuly 22, 2026
1 day ago
Scott Bessent casually says the U.S. has more than $1 trillion in gold—and that it doesn’t matter for the dollar
Economy
Scott Bessent casually says the U.S. has more than $1 trillion in gold—and that it doesn’t matter for the dollar
By Sasha RogelbergJuly 22, 2026
1 day ago
Mark Cuban says he has the solution to growing income inequality, and it's to reward every employee—from CEO to janitor—with company stock
Success
Mark Cuban says he has the solution to growing income inequality, and it's to reward every employee—from CEO to janitor—with company stock
By Sasha RogelbergJuly 20, 2026
3 days ago
Spain lifted the World Cup, but the IRS still gets a cut of its $50 million pay day as players, coaches and refs all face complex U.S. “jock taxes”
Personal Finance
Spain lifted the World Cup, but the IRS still gets a cut of its $50 million pay day as players, coaches and refs all face complex U.S. “jock taxes”
By Joshua HongJuly 23, 2026
17 hours ago
'The man who dies rich dies disgraced': The last time America had such wealth inequality, Andrew Carnegie knew he had to give it all away
Success
'The man who dies rich dies disgraced': The last time America had such wealth inequality, Andrew Carnegie knew he had to give it all away
By Nick LichtenbergJuly 22, 2026
1 day ago
Current price of oil as of July 23, 2026
Personal Finance
Current price of oil as of July 23, 2026
By Joseph HostetlerJuly 23, 2026
14 hours ago

© 2026 Fortune Media IP Limited. All Rights Reserved. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy | CA Notice at Collection and Privacy Notice | Do Not Sell/Share My Personal Information
FORTUNE is a trademark of Fortune Media IP Limited, registered in the U.S. and other countries. FORTUNE may receive compensation for some links to products and services on this website. Offers may be subject to change without notice.