Masa and I are still in love with each other: Nikesh Arora

For about four hours, Nikesh Arora patiently answered all questions and responded to remarks and observations.

It’s rare for resignations by corporate bosses to go viral on social media.

It’s rarer for honchos to actually break the news themselves on social media and then interact with the followers.

SoftBank Group President Nikesh Arora did both, and in style.

‘Nikesh Arora’ was trending on Twitter for more than six hours after the former Google executive, handpicked by the Japanese company’s founder as his successor, announced his decision to step down.

“Masa (Masayoshi Son) to continue to be CEO for 5-10 years, respect that. Learnt a lot. Clean chit from board after thorough review. Time for me to move on,” Arora posted on Twitter. Within minutes, the news spread like fire. 

In the next four hours or so, Arora posted 100-plus tweets, interacting with his fans and followers.

Arora said he was “not sad” about resigning from SoftBank.

“I am not sad. I learnt a lot, sitting with Masa (the chairman) at dinner and chatting about life in the future,” he said in a tweet.

He said he’d be supporting SoftBank for at least another year. “Plan to support them for an year; hence, continuing as advisor.”

Start-up bosses such as Paytm’s Vijay Shekhar Sharma, media personnel and ‘tweeple’ asked him all sorts of questions.

He said he decided to quit because Son wanted to continue as the top boss for 5-10 years.

On being asked if it was the Special Committee review that made him take the decision he said, “No, didn’t want to be CEO-in-waiting past my sell-by date.” 

In a jovial mood, Arora laughed it off when a Twitter user indicated he’d resigned just in time to be the next Reserve Bank of India Governor.

Paytm’s Sharma said in a tweet: “Why o why? That’s a big setback for Indian start-up ecosystem. Best wishes and hoping even bigger impact next.”

To this, Arora said: “Going to continue to support the Indian start-up ecosystem… can’t change faith if you change jobs.”

While speculations were rife over Arora putting in his papers only 24 hours after a clean chit at SoftBank’s Special Committee review, he said he’d never doubted that outcome.

“Never had a doubt. My father was a man with the highest integrity; if there was one thing he taught me, that was it,” he tweeted.

Asked if he would still continue to be involved in the India portfolio, he said he supported everyone SoftBank has invested in. “Masa and I are still in love with each other. I will support everyone I invested in, and they know that,” he replied. 

While Arora kept saying he had “no plan” as of now, at one point in a cryptic reply to what he might be doing next, he indicated it might be with an entity which “used to be a computer company a while ago”.

On whether he regretted any investments, he said: “The nature of investing is wins and losses. As long as wins overweight losses, you win. Can’t regret the loss.”