Alibaba's co-founder and former executive official Jack Ma has recently announced resignation from his post in the top conglomerate company SoftBank. Ma is one of the top allies of the company's CEO Masayoshi Son. Despite this, why did he decided to let go of his position for nearly 13 years?
Alibaba's Jack Ma resigns from SoftBank! Here's why
As first reported via Reuters, Ma, which is one of the world's top billionaires, resigned from his position as SoftBank's board member.
Back in Sept. 2018, Ma also let go of his position in Alibaba, to focus on his philanthropic vision.
"I can never be as rich, but one thing I can do better is to retire earlier. I think someday, and soon, I'll go back to teaching. This is something I think I can do much better than being CEO of Alibaba," he said two years ago.
There was no announcement on why Ma decided to resigned from his post or if it still relates to his movement on helping other people in need.
However, Reuters speculates that it could come down to the pressure on SoftBank's top management operation, including the recently record-breaking multi-billion-dollar annual loss worth $100 billion Vision Fund.
Despite the bearish market of the conglomerate, Richard Kaye, fund manager at Comgest, an asset management firm with a $50m stake in SoftBank, confirmed that no large losses were reported after this incident.
"Although the [loss] figure might look large, the implications in terms of cash flow to a SoftBank shareholder are much smaller," said him. "WeWork is only one of many stakes at the Vision Fund ... the value in many of the company's stakes I think is fascinating."
Aside from this, there could also be a possibility that this action was part of activist investor Elliott Management's demand to improve board diversity after the loss happened.
Who will replace Jack Ma?
As reported, SoftBank will recommend three names to replace Ma as a member of the board. This includes group Chief Financial Officer Yoshimoto Goto, Lip-Bu Tan, CEO of chip design software firm Cadence Design Systems who is also chairman of venture capital firm Walden International, and Yuko Kawamoto, a professor at Waseda Business School as one of the outside directors.
Once accepted, Kawamoto will be the only female board member inside the company.
The final decision regarding the re-assignments will be tackled at its annual general meeting on June 25. The number of board members will expand to 13.
