Zhang, a former accountant, joined Alibaba in 2007 and is known for being the architect behind the company's annual flagship "Singles Day" shopping festival. "It would be inappropriate for me to continue serving as chairman and CEO of both companies at the same time during the spin-off process."Īnalysts have estimated the cloud unit to be worth $41 billion to $60 billion but have said the reams of data it oversees could put it in the cross-hairs of regulators at home and abroad. "From a corporate governance perspective, we also need clear separation between the board and management team as the Cloud Intelligence Group proceeds down the path to becoming an independent public company," he said. Zhang, in a memo to staff seen by Reuters, said the cloud spin-off was approaching a crucial stage and that it was the right time for him to dedicate his attention to the business. Its China-facing e-commerce division, which includes the Taobao and Tmall marketplaces, will stay wholly owned by Alibaba, but the other five units will be spun off, with Alibaba saying in May it aimed to complete the public listing of its cloud unit within the next 12 months. The surprise reshuffle comes after a tumultuous two years that saw Alibaba heavily targeted by increased regulatory scrutiny and after the group announced in March that it would restructure into six units, each with their own boards and CEOs. "The idea or expectation that one person could manage the business' crown jewel Cloud and at the same time manage the entire Alibaba Group is an unreasonable expectation." "The appointment of Daniel to focus on running cloud is really a show of confidence and trust in him to take the most precious business and run with it to develop it in the right way given this age of generative artificial intelligence (AI)," said Brian Wong, a former Alibaba employee and author of the book, "The Tao of Alibaba". The CEO role will be handed over to Eddie Yongming Wu, chairman of Alibaba's Taobao and Tmall Group, while Executive Vice Chairman Joseph Tsai will take over Zhang as chairman.īoth appointments will take effect on Sept. Zhang has been concurrently serving in three roles since December when he took over as head of the cloud unit after it suffered an outage that it described as its "longest major-scale failure" for over a decade. SHANGHAI, June 20 (Reuters) - Alibaba Group (9988.HK) on Tuesday said its CEO and chairman Daniel Zhang will step down from the roles to focus on its cloud division as the Chinese e-commerce giant moves ahead with a plan to split into six business units. Alibaba aims to complete cloud unit listing in a year.Joseph Tsai to succeed Zhang as Alibaba Group chairman.Executive shuffle comes after Chinese tech giant's restructuring.
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