In an unprecedented management shakeup, Softbank’s Masayoshi Son will step down as the chairman of the Board of Directors.
He held the office for more than five years, taking the post in 2015.
Nevertheless, he will remain as the Board Director and the firm’s largest shareholder. This will ensure that his voice has as much weight as before.
Ken Miyauchi will take on the role as the new leader of the firm. Mr Miyauchi is currently the president and Chief Executive Officer of Japan’s third-largest telecom company.
Miyauchi’s incumbent position will go down to Junichi Miyakawa. In turn, he currently serves as the representative director and Chief Technology Officer of the service provider.
Miyakawa is a son of a Buddhist Priest and is acknowledged for his various contributions through his digitization thrust.
For the record, the incoming chief executive is the reason behind the 5G venture which placed Softbank on the pedestal.
Along with the announcement, stocks made a conservative move as the market remains sceptical about what the change might bring.
In the latest charts, the conglomerate hiked by 0.012% to 8,665 points at the Nikkei 225 index.
The Japanese bourse traded lower by 0.96% for the day. It was weighed down by Paper and Pulp, Railway and Bus, and Real Estate shares.
In a statement regarding the shuffling of executives, the tech firm says that such a measure is imperative to capitalize on the strengths of the incumbent executives.
Similarly, the mechanism is also likely to pave the way to pass on the strengths curated to the next generation of leaders to come.
Under the new regime, Softbank seeks to promote its “Beyond Carrier” strategy. This will have the aim of making sense of artificial intelligence and other advanced technologies.
A New Era is Coming
In a longer-term prospect, the Minato, Tokyo-based company aspires to step up its goals towards sustainable growth in its telecommunications operations.
Meanwhile, it is not only Son who is leaving his post.
Earlier, Colin Fan stepped down from his position as the managing partner of Vision Fund, which is an investment arm that offers financial loans to startup companies.
The former Deutsche Bank senior executive joined the group in 2017, later moving to an advisory position.
He played a prominent role in the program’s Greensill Capital which is a controversial UK firm specializing in supply-chain finance.
The latest blow came after the reports saying that Jeffrey Housenbold which is in charge of the firm’s largest investments is due to leave later this year.
In a brighter note, Softbank-backed Klook based in Hong Kong raised $200 million in the latest funding rounds.
