HONG KONG—A top executive of Japan's SoftBank Group Corp. said
the company is still committed to turning around Sprint Corp., the
struggling U.S. wireless carrier it owns, though it takes a long
time for the telecom industry to change.
"Telecom business is a long-term business...It takes a while to
shift the direction in the industry," said SoftBank President
Nikesh Arora at the Converge technology conference in Hong Kong on
Thursday.
Mr. Arora, a former Google Inc. executive, joined SoftBank in
September to oversee its U.S.-based investment arm. In May, Chief
Executive Masayoshi Son, who founded SoftBank in 1981, named Mr.
Arora as his heir apparent to lead the "second phase" of SoftBank's
growth as a global company.
SoftBank bought Sprint in 2013 for about $22 billion in one of
its boldest moves to expand its presence abroad. Sprint, which last
year abandoned plans to buy another U.S. carrier T-Mobile US Inc.
after facing regulatory opposition, is struggling to compete
against two market leaders AT&T Inc. and Verizon Communications
Inc.
Asked whether consolidation in the U.S. telecom sector is
necessary for Sprint's success, Mr. Arora said: "It just requires
capital to transform the products" at Sprint.
SoftBank, which in addition to being a major telecom carrier in
Japan also controls Internet portal Yahoo Japan, has been
increasing its presence overseas through a series of high-profile
acquisitions as well as investments in Chinese and Indian tech
startups.
It is the largest shareholder of Alibaba Group Holding Ltd.,
owning roughly one-third of the Chinese electronic commerce giant.
It has also invested in online services in China such as
taxi-hailing app Didi Kuaidi Joint Co.
"China has its own vibrant ecosystem" for startups, Mr. Arora
said, adding that there will be similarly vibrant startup scenes in
other parts of Asia. With improving Internet connectivity and
access to technology in Asia, "time to creating businesses has
shortened," he said. "You don't have to be in Silicon Valley."
In India, SoftBank holds stakes in Jasper Infotech Pvt. Ltd.,
which runs online marketplace Snapdeal.com., and ANI Technologies
Pvt. Ltd.'s taxi-hailing service Ola Cabs. It has also invested in
Singapore-based ride-hailing app GrabTaxi and South Korea's largest
mobile commerce firm Coupang.
Mr. Arora said he and Mr. Son talk about almost every aspect of
Softbank's business. "We spend a lot of time talking to each other
about the way we see the world. We see eye to eye on many things."
Mr. Arora described Mr. Son as one of the world's unique
entrepreneurs.
One challenge for SoftBank, Mr. Arora said, is to make sure the
business can sustain itself when Mr. Son, who founded the company
in 1981, decides to move on.
Follow live coverage of the Converge conference on Twitter with
the hashtag #Converge.
Write to Juro Osawa at juro.osawa@wsj.com
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