Alibaba founder to step down as director of technology investment firm in June 


By Kosaku Narioka

Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. co-founder Jack Ma is stepping down from the board of technology investment company SoftBank Group Corp., the latest confidant of SoftBank Chief Executive Masayoshi Son to depart.

SoftBank said Monday that Mr. Ma, who has served on the board for 13 years, would resign June 25, when the company holds its annual shareholder meeting.

Tadashi Yanai, head of Uniqlo operator Fast Retailing Co., left the SoftBank board at the end of 2019 after 18 years of service, and Nidec Corp. Chief Executive Shigenobu Nagamori left in September 2017.

Mr. Ma's departure marks a turning point in a longstanding relationship with Mr. Son. In 2000, Mr. Son put $20 million into Alibaba, a then fledgling internet company, based on what Mr. Ma called his "shared vision" with the Japanese tech billionaire. It is now SoftBank's most valuable holding.

SoftBank, which is set to release results for the year ended March 31 later Monday, has said it lost nearly $17 billion in its technology-focused Vision Fund for the year. Greater-than-expected losses at office-share firm WeWork pushed SoftBank's expected net loss for the year to around Yen900 billion ($8.4 billion).

SoftBank's stock price rose starting in late March, when it announced an additional Yen2 trillion in share buybacks on top of an earlier buyback plan. Of the new Yen2 trillion, SoftBank said Monday that the board approved a maximum of Yen500 billion of shares to be purchased by March 31, 2021. SoftBank's board will decide on the timing and amount of the remainder of the proposed Yen2 trillion share buyback after watching the progress of current repurchases, a SoftBank spokesperson said.

SoftBank said it would keep 10 of its 11 existing directors -- with Mr. Ma the sole exception -- and nominate three new ones to take office after the shareholder meeting in June.

The three new directors are SoftBank Group Chief Financial Officer Yoshimitsu Goto, Cadence Design Systems Inc. Chief Executive Lip-Bu Tan and Prof. Yuko Kawamoto of Waseda Business School.

Write to Kosaku Narioka at kosaku.narioka@wsj.com