Appointed five months ago as managing director of SoftBank Group International, where he managed all of the Japanese giant’s investments outside of the Vision Fund, Michel Combes has decided to leave Masayoshi Son’s group.
Michel Combes will not have long held his new position at SoftBank. Appointed general manager of SoftBank Group International five months ago, in charge of all the Japanese giant’s investments outside of the Vision Fund, the Frenchman has decided to leave Masayoshi Son’s group. Nevertheless, Michel Combes will continue to represent SoftBank on the boards of several companies in which the Japanese firm has invested, like the coworking giant WeWork, which he had saved from bankruptcy, or the start-up French Swile.
Arrived in 2018 at SoftBank, this historic boss of telecoms, passed by France Telecom, Vodafone, Alcatel-Lucent and Altice, took the head of the American operator Sprint, controlled by the Japanese group, to complete the merger two years later. with T-Mobile. After carrying out this operation, in 2020 he became the president of SoftBank Group International, an entity thanks to which he was able to invest in several French nuggets such as Sorare, Contentsquare or even Vestiaire Collective, which have moreover become unicorns (in minus a billion dollars in valuation).
Turbulent times for SoftBank
Last January, Michel Combes had taken the lead within SoftBank Group International by recovering part of the functions of Marcelo Claure, the director of operations of the Japanese conglomerate whom he had left on very bad terms. It must be said that the group has been going through a period of severe turbulence for months due to investments in technology companies which have not paid off, with several billion dollars in losses, and a cascade of resignations which raise questions about the stability of its governance.
It is in this delicate context that Alex Clavel, former investment banker at Morgan Stanley, will succeed Michel Combes. The 48-year-old American joined SoftBank in 2015 and had worked closely with the French leader for two years. His task will be difficult alongside Masayoshi Son, whose management and investment vision are increasingly questioned. After distinguishing himself by betting on companies with a sulphurous reputation such as Uber and WeWork, the Japanese businessman took the brunt of the coronavirus crisis, which endangered most of the companies supported by the now famous VisionFund. But it seems that the delusions of grandeur are currently coming to an end at SoftBank after years of decadence.