SoftBank leadership changes: four internal directors including Rajeev Misra give up their positions

SoftBank announced that four of its internal executives will be stepping down from their positions. This includes Vision Fund CEO Rajeev Misra, Softbank’s COO Marcelo Claure, chief strategy officer Katsunori Sago, Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund’s Yasir O. Al-Rumayyan.

Rajiv Misra, an Indian by birth, has been leading the Vision Fund for the past three years. He was a part of the board since 2017. This was the same year when the company started pumping capital in global technology companies.

After the restructuring, the board will reduce to nine members. This change will make way for external members to better govern the corporate. The changes are aimed at separating management and operations at the company, said CEO Masayoshi Son. The Japanese conglomerate is increasingly focussing on investments rather than managing its own companies.

Apart from this, SoftBank's Chief Legal Officer Rob Townsend is promoted to a new role as a senior advisor. Tim Mackey will take over his position. Also, there have been multiple departures at Vision Fund in recent months. The company’s Chief Operating Officer Ruwan Weerasekara retired earlier this year. Its investing partners Ted Fike and Justin Wilson also quit, joining the private equity firm Gores Group. Operating partner Avi Golan also left to join AnyVision as the Chief Executive Officer.

Vision Fund’s financial situations

Chief Executive, Masayoshi Son, in the financial year 2020, announced losses of around $17.7 billion in its vision fund. The registered losses were higher than the estimated sum of $16.7 billion. SoftBank has posted an operating loss of $12.7 billion in the fiscal year 2020, ending March. At the same time, the company also reported a net income loss of $894 million. This would be its first loss in the last 15 years.

These losses were attributed to the poor stock performance of Uber and WeWork. The ride-hailing giant contributed $5.4 billion losses to SoftBank whereas the co-working space provider contributed $4.6 billion. Also, the remaining 88 startups under the Vision Fund’s portfolio contributed $7.4 billion to the overall losses.

Comment from SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son

"On behalf of our shareholders and the board, I want to express my deep appreciation to Marcelo, Sago-san, Rajeev and Yasir for their dedication and their service on the Board,”.
“The changes to our board build upon the enhancements we made in June including ensuring we have a greater proportion of external board directors, and further highlight SoftBank’s commitment to corporate governance.”