Newsmaker: Nikesh Arora

He is best known for having been the highest paid employee at Google

Nikesh Arora has his goals clear —aim for the top job; if you don’t get it, don’t wait, look out. So, when he announced his exit from SoftBank earlier this week, it shouldn’t have come as a surprise.

As SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son, who had earlier decided to hand over the reins of the investment bank to Arora after he turned 60, decided to extend his stay at the helm for another five to 10 years, for the CEO-in-waiting, the wait clearly became too long.  “Didn’t want to be waiting past my sell-by date,” he tweeted.

Arora was wooed by Son two years ago from Google as the heir apparent of SoftBank, but during his tenure he faced a slew of criticism from investors over his investment choices. Arora invested heavily in start-ups around the world and particularly in India. One of his investments was in the now-struggling Housing.com, the real estate portal founded by Rahul Yadav.  Housing.com has been faltering ever since Yadav left the company in a huff after getting into a public spat with the company’s investors.

While an internal SoftBank panel looking into Arora’s “questionable investment track record” gave him a clean chit, many believe the inquiry was what prompted Son to reconsider his decision to hand over the charge to him next year. The links between the inquiry and his decision to quit was one question that Arora had to answer the most on a chat on Twitter after he announced his exit.

Arora enjoys a rockstar-like following in the start-up community in India, given his interest in the Indian start-up story. Over the past year, he has led SoftBank to invest in a whole host of companies, including Ola Cabs, Snapdeal and inMobi.

An electrical engineering graduate from the Banaras Hindu University, he is perhaps best known for having been the highest paid employee at Google.

Hired to head Google’s European operations, Arora’s ambitions led him to become the top paid executive at the internet company as its head of global sales and chief business officer.

Then, the alliance with Son happened. The mind boggling annual compensation of Rs 850 crore only spiced up the news of him being anointed a potential successor.  In two years, though, the arrangement fell apart.

“Arora is a unique leader with unparalleled skills around strategy and execution. He should be CEO of a global business, and I had hoped to hand over the reins of SoftBank to him on my 60th birthday—but I feel my work is not done,” Son said in a statement.