Tech May 24, 2015 09:58 PM EDT

Nikesh Arora of SoftBank is New CEO Of Yahoo Japan; Masayoshi Son Steps Down, Plans To Rebuild Sprint

By Staff Writer

Nikesh Arora, the former Google head of business is poised to take over the top position at SoftBank. He will be the successor of Softbank chief executive officer (CEO) Masayoshi Son as Yahoo Japan's chairman of its board of directors.

SoftBank presently holds a 43 percent share in Yahoo Japan. Son will stay as board member.

Arora's rise to the top may mean the firm will make more U.S. investments even after its majority share in Sprint has to pay off. Arora had a key responsibility in SoftBank's current funding of event information analysis firm Banjo, one of its biggest startup in the United States.

Arora joined the firm in September 2015, earlier this month he was promoted as the new president of SoftBank. Son said during a press conference that he doesn't intend to retire soon, but he likes Arora to be his successor.

More than, operating a company in Japan's telecommunication industry, SoftBank is also a global tech giant with valuable shares in Alibaba, Sprint and Yahoo Japan, as well as a list of Asian startups, like Uber (Ola's competitor), Snapdeal (an Indian e-commerce giant) and Tokopedia (an Indonesian Marketplace).

Arora's roles will possibly include restructuring Sprint, which has been weighing on the operating gains of SoftBank despite a management mass layoffs and reshuffle.

Arora was former head of customer operations and revenue in Google, as well as partnership and marketing. Prior to that, he was a board member and chief marketing offices at T-Mobile Europe, experience that is handy as SoftBank makes an effort to recover Sprint's downfall.

SoftBank was re-named SoftBank Group Corp to represent its place as a global holding firm and umbrella for all its company assets, which include SoftBank Mobile Corp and investments in Alibaba Group and Yahoo Japan Corporation.


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