When Marcelo Claure leaves with an expensive exit package, it will lead to an in-house crisis and a lack of a solution for the company’s problems.
For a decade, whenever the investments went wrong, the SoftBank chief, Masayoshi Son, would call upon his in-house fixer Marcelo Claure for a solution.
The battle over the pay-out is at the heart of the conflict. Son thought it was a symbolic gesture, but for Claure, it was a real deal.
Marcelo Claure, a Bolivian millionaire, helped the Japanese conglomerate turn round their multiple ailing businesses, with the most recent case being the WeWork crisis. For months there have been tense negotiations over his pay.
This led to hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of exit packages. He will receive severance payments between $30m-$40m and will have a stake in SoftBank’s Latin American fund. He also agreed to a non-compete clause.
By this clause for a couple of years, he cannot start projects that compete against SoftBank or poach staff during that time but have the freedom to start other new ventures.
Claure is not the only executive recruited by Son to the Japanese conglomerate who has fallen away from them under terms of control over the company’s future. It also shows the company’s unruly direction under Son.
A worldwide sell-off of growth-orientated tech stocks and a crackdown on Chinese start-ups has ravaged its portfolio of holdings. After reaching an all-time high in March, its shares fell by 60%.
His eight-year tenure will be remembered for many investment problems he solved for the Japanese conglomerate. The notable issue he solved was the all-share merger between Sprint and T-Mobile.
After this deal, only three companies remained in the US mobile market and unlocked huge returns for SoftBank. The top executives enhanced their wealth from this deal, with Claure being the highest-paid executive by a Japanese company.
Claure brought $500m worth of T-Mobile shares that allowed SoftBank to cash in on its holdings, with loans from SoftBank. But these shares fell in 2021, with most of the bets they made on shares wiped out.
Claure first caught the attention of the conglomerate in 2013, when they bought a majority stake in his telecoms start-up Brightstar for $1.26bn. It turned him into one of the richest Latinos living in the US and brought him into the group.
His gregarious personality and knack for problem-solving helped him climb inside SoftBank’s hierarchy. He became part of an inner circle of top executives within the group.
But he clashed with one of the executives, Rajeev Misra, who runs SoftBank’s private investment unit arm including, Vision Fund. This forced Claure out of Japan. He then launched a Latin America focused-fund in March 2019.
Other factors that forced him out are the economic fallout of the WeWork deal, demands for compensation, his private investments and the group’s strategic direction.
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