Technology News Desk!! Daniel Zhang, former chairman and CEO of Alibaba Group, has stepped down as head of the e-commerce giant’s cloud division. The media gave this information on Monday. His resignation from the cloud unit came as he was about to hand over the reins of the parent company to co-founder Joe Tsai, the South China Morning Post reported. The news caused Alibaba Group shares to fall 3 percent at the close of trading in Hong Kong – considered the biggest hit since August 18.
“Alibaba’s new CEO AD Wu Yongming also took over for Zhang as executive chairman and CEO of Alibaba Cloud Intelligence Group on the same day,” the report quoted an Alibaba spokesperson as saying. “Alibaba will continue to execute its previously announced plan to separate Alibaba Cloud Intelligence Group under a separate management team to be appointed,” the spokesperson said.
Alibaba had announced in June that 51-year-old Zhang would resign as CEO and chairman of Alibaba. However, given the importance of Alibaba Cloud Intelligence Group as it moves toward a full spin-off, he was likely to remain on as head of the cloud unit. Zhang took over as CEO of Alibaba in 2015 and chairman in 2019. Chinese internet giant Alibaba is reportedly cutting jobs at its cloud unit by about 7 percent of the workforce as it plans separate IPOs for its different business groups.
Earlier, the Chinese tech giant had said that it plans to split the company into six business units, and each unit will explore fundraising or IPO (initial public offering). The six units include Cloud Intelligence Group, Taobao Tmall Commerce Group, Local Services Group, Cainyao Smart Logistics Group, Global Digital Commerce Group and Digital Media and Entertainment Group. Each business unit will be led by its CEO and board of directors.
–IANS
PK/ABM