Masayoshi Son May Be the Oddest of the Oddball Billionaires
A new biography sheds light not just on his hit-and-miss methods, but also on globalization from a Japanese perspective.
Son is different from you and me.
Photographer: Tomohiro Ohsumi/Getty Images AsiaPacIn 2019, Elliott Management, an activist investment fund which had built up a 3% stake in Softbank, demanded a meeting with the company’s founder and CEO, Masayoshi Son. Elliott complained that the company’s governance was such a mess that the stock was trading at least 50% below net asset or “fair” value — the board was tame, the corporate structure was over-complicated, and “transparency” was not even a concept. Other business titans such as Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg had bowed down before the god of good corporate governance. Why not Masa Son?
Son’s reply came as a surprise. “These are one business guys. Bill Gates just started Microsoft and Mark Zuckerberg started Facebook. I am involved in 100 businesses, and I control the entire [tech] ecosystem. These are not my peers. The right comparison for me is Napoleon or Genghis Khan or Emperor Qin [builder of the Great Wall of China]. I am not a CEO. I am building an empire.”