Ken Miyauchi to replace Nikesh Arora as SoftBank president

Tokyo: Japanese conglomerate SoftBank Wednesday said Ken Miyauchi, head of the group's Japanese telecommunications operations, would replace Nikesh Arora as president and chief operating officer.

Yesterday, Arora had abruptly resigned from his position after it became clear that Chairman and CEO Masayoshi Son wanted to continue in his current post for another 5-10 years.

Miyauchi held 1,101,230 shares of SBG as of March 31, 2016, according to a statement by SoftBank.

Arora, who was touted as heir apparent at SoftBank, had said he can't be "CEO-in-waiting past his sell-by date" as his 58-year-old boss Son wanted to continue.

Arora, who was hand-picked by Son two years ago to succeed him, was among the top-paid executives globally.

He will remain in an advisory role at SoftBank for a year. Arora's exit came just a day after he got a clean-chit from a special committee set up by SoftBank to look into the allegations against him from some shareholders about his conduct and qualifications.

He was also reportedly criticised by a SoftBank investor for pumping huge money in India and one of the investment went through rough weather in a realty business based web portal.

Arora, who has been instrumental in SoftBank's investments in Indian entities like Snapdeal, Ola, Grofers, Housing.Com and Oyo Rooms, has said he intends to focus more on Indian startup ecosystem going forward.