Softbank has poached Google’s chief business officer Nikesh Arora to head up its newly formed Softbank Internet and Media unit.
Arora has been appointed CEO of the new division where he will be responsible for overseeing Softbank’s internet,…
Softbank has poached Google’s chief business officer Nikesh Arora to head up its newly formed Softbank Internet and Media unit.
Arora has been appointed CEO of the new division where he will be responsible for overseeing Softbank’s internet, telecommunications, media and global investment activities.
Arora will also become vice chairman of Softbank itself, where he will work closely with CEO Masayoshi Son in defining, implementing and managing the Japanese group’s global growth strategy.
He had been at Google for almost a decade and ran its European business operations before becoming CBO five years ago. Before joining the internet giant he was a telecoms analyst at Putnam Investments.
The hire comes as Softbank remains interested in merging its American mobile operator, Sprint Corp, with Deutsche Telekom’s T-Mobile US. Son has previously said he sees the US market in terms of internet providers and wants to gain scale so that Sprint/T-Mobile can compete with Verizon Communications, and the pending combinations of Comcast and Time Warner Cable, and AT&T and DirecTV.
Commenting on the appointment Son said: “[Arora] brings a rare set of skills: amazing financial and strategic acumen; a decade of executive experience at one of the fastest growing companies in history; a deep understanding of the telecommunications industry.”
“This makes him uniquely qualified to help guide us through our next stage of growth.”
Meanwhile, Google’s CEO Larry Page paid tribute to Arora in a blog post: “Nikesh has been a tremendous leader, adviser and mentor to many Googlers — including me. We have learned a lot together, and had a lot of fun along the way.”
