SoftBank gives Nikesh Arora $135 mn for 2014

Ex-Google exec named president, COO

SoftBank has paid India-born former Google executive Nikesh Arora a whopping $135 million for financial year 2014. The Japanese telecommunications giant has also named him president and chief operating officer.

Earlier, Arora was SoftBank’s vice-president. Last month, Arora, then head of investments, was named a potential successor to chairman and chief executive, Masayoshi Son, as the telecom conglomerate steps up expansion abroad.

Arora, 47, joined the Japanese company in September 2014. Earlier, he was chief business officer of Google Inc, which he joined in 2004 as a telecom industry analyst.

Hailed by Son as a “rising star”, Arora received 16.556 billion yen (about $135 million) for his tenure at the company till March this year. Of this, 14.6 billion yen was paid as an entering bonus and compensation for his work as an executive at a SoftBank subsidiary, the Asahi Shimbun reported, citing the conglomerate’s latest financial report.

Unlike elsewhere in the world, few business executives in Japan were paid several billions of yen a year and it was rare for a Japanese company to pay more than 16 billion yen annually to an executive, it said.

In less than a year at SoftBank, Arora has already directed about 200 billion yen ($1.67 billion) worth of deals, including investments in technology start-up Snapdeal and taxi-booking service Ola, the Nikkei Business Daily reported.