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Strive Masiyiwa at a conference in 2016 (Photo by Frank Augstein – WPA Pool / Getty Images)
- Zimbabwean billionaire Strive Masiyiwa has been appointed to the Netflix board.
- He made his money working for the government of Zimbabwe, then took it to court for the right to operate a cell phone network.
- His empire has been built with considerable acrimony and legal battles in various parts of Africa.
- This is what you need to know about it.
- For more stories, visit www.BusinessInsider.co.za.
He has been called a maverick, “charismatic and controversial”, and “Warren Buffett of Africa.” He’s building a reputation as a philanthropist, with measures like an offer to pay Zimbabwean doctors out of his own pocket. He fought Robert Mugabe and several other governments and large corporations to build a telecommunications business that would span the entire continent.
But starting this week, future biographies of Strive Masiyiwa are likely to give his role as Netflix’s director a place of honor, and not just because he’s a household name. Masiyiwa is the first African to find a place at the Netflix table, and one of the few Africans in charge of the American megacorporations that dominate online entertainment and communication in much of the world.
Also, after the departure of current board member Susan Rice, she will be the only black person on Netflix’s board.
Masiyiwa has a long history as a negotiator – and a troublemaker – in some of the largest markets in Africa. His appointment seems to indicate that Netflix is ready to take the continent seriously, as it seeks its next billion customers.
Here’s what you need to know about Strive Masiyiwa, the Zimbabwean billionaire who has just been appointed head of Netflix.
He was educated in the UK, where he became an engineer when the time was not right to become a freedom fighter.
His family moved to Zambia when he was just a young child after the white minority government in Rhodesia declared its independence from Great Britain. He ended up in a Scottish boarding school because his family had Scottish neighbors in Zambia and he was reunited with his son in Edinburgh.
He returned to Zimbabwe after finishing school, hoping to join the military fight against minority rule, but was convinced that the war was basically already won. He returned to the UK and studied engineering at the University of Wales.
He made his first fortune working for the Zimbabwe government, then used the money to fight it.
Masiyiwa’s first foray into business was an engineering company, Retrofit, which he founded in 1986 (with a bank loan from Barclays that came on the condition that he dispose of his flashy car). At the time he sold it, 80% of his business was with the state of Zimbabwe, according to Masiyiwa.
That provided him with the financial foundation to launch an epic half-decade legal battle against the Zimbabwean government, which became a literal case study, for the right to launch a private mobile phone company in that country.
He was Zimbabwe’s first billionaire and is one of the richest black people in the world.
In 2019, before the massive swings in stock and currency values brought on by the pandemic, Masiyiwa was ranked the ninth richest black person in the world.
With an estimated net worth of $ 1.7 billion, Forbes declared him Zimbabwe’s first dollar billionaire in 2018.
Relations with Robert Mugabe’s government did not improve when he financed private newspapers …
Masiyiwa first loaned The Daily News enough money to continue operating during the highly controversial 2000 elections in Zimbabwe, and later became a major shareholder in the Associate Newspapers of Zimbabwe group. That put him in direct conflict with the government of Robert Mugabe, which was waging war against the independent media.
.. and things are not always good with the Emmerson Mnangagwa administration either
This year, the Zimbabwean government accused Econet de Masiyiwa of running a pyramid scheme and tried to get him to hand over subscriber and transaction information.
The EcoCash platform, the government argued, was facilitating currency trading on the black market.
He fought a nasty war with Vodacom in Nigeria …
While MTN threw its hat into the ring in the early 2000s, rival Vodacom ignored Nigeria at first, only to see MTN grow by leaps and bounds.
Apparently lamenting his earlier shyness, Vodacom devised a plan to take control of Econet Wireless Nigeria, the pioneer in action, which was claiming around 40% of the market at the time, and thus go head-to-head with MTN with a war chest. of 200 million dollars. In April 2004, Vodacom announced a management agreement whereby the Nigerian company would take its name and be run by its executives. That was suddenly canceled just two months later.
Things got complicated, with accusations of corruption, exits of executives and unlikely claims of friendly settlements. But at the center of it all was Masiyiwa, who resolutely asserted that his Econet Wireless International had preferential rights to the shares that Vodacom tried to buy.
Masiyiwa sued Vodacom, took the fight to the United Nations and fought fiercely at every point, big or small, in every place he could access, warning future enemies of what to expect.
(Years later, Masiyiwa claimed that the entire Vodacom war started because it had refused to pay the bribes demanded by Nigerian politicians.)
… and had a slump with Altron in operations including Botswana and beyond …
In early 2004, Masiyiwa and the South African technology group Altech announced a R1 billion partnership in markets such as Botswana, with Altech contributing the cash and Econet injecting various telecom assets.
Less than 20 months later, the companies announced an end to all disputes thanks to Econet buying Altech out of the joint venture.
In between, things got complicated, with fights over who the joint venture might partner with (including Vodacom), accusations of racism and legal fights in both South Africa and Botswana.
He fought against the Kenyan government until it stopped.
In Kenya, Econet’s license to operate a mobile network was canceled in 2004, sparking another round of legal battles for Masiyiwa and his interests. In 2007, the Kenyan government, which at one point insisted that Econet was a fraud with no place in the country, agreed to stop hostilities; he would stop trying to shut down Masiyiwa if he dropped his various legal actions against him.
Two years later, Econet had 200,000 subscribers in Kenya.
Its Liquid Telecom is rapidly building infrastructure in various parts of the continent.
Liquid Telecom, a South Africa-based subsidiary of Econet Global, has been raising money and spending it fast, on everything from installing fiber in Botswana to building Nigeria’s largest data center.
It is rapidly positioning itself to be an ideal provider for large tech firms moving to the mainland, analysts say, including companies like Netflix.
On the Netflix board, he replaces a former Obama adviser, who is assuming a key position in the Biden administration.
Masiyiwa’s seat on the Netflix board of directors was previously held by Susan Rice, who served as the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations under Barack Obama and served as the chief of staff for the National Security Council.
She resigned as head of Netflix to become director of the National Policy Council of incoming US President Joe Biden.
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