(HONG KONG) — Daniel Zhang, the former CEO of Alibaba, unexpectedly resigned as head of its cloud computing unit on Monday as the Chinese e-commerce company completed a leadership restructuring.
Alibaba announced a $1 billion investment in a technology fund Zhang would form to support the company’s future growth goals.
Zhang resigned on the same day he resigned as CEO and Chairman of the company.
The company announced in a filing to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange that Eddie Wu, its new CEO, will also lead its cloud segment. Wu and Alibaba’s new chairman, Joseph Tsai, took their new positions on Monday, and Alibaba declared that the company had “completed its leadership transition.”
The company expressed its “deepest appreciation” to Zhang for his efforts for the company over the previous 16 years.
Following the announcement, Alibaba’s Hong Kong stock price fell 3.6% on Monday.
Daniel Zhang, the former CEO of Alibaba, unexpectedly resigned as head of its cloud computing unit on Monday.
In an internal letter dated Sunday, Tsai said that Zhang had “expressed his wish to transition away from his role” as chief of the cloud division and that the Alibaba board had “respected and accepted Daniel’s decision.”
“Daniel will continue to contribute to the company by channelling his expertise differently,” Tsai said.
The company has been restructuring itself into six business divisions to eventually spin off and list most of them to maximize shareholder rewards.
The business hoped to float its cloud unit over the following 12 months in May. On Monday, it repeated that intention.
Zhang joined the company in 2007 and is recognized for inventing the company’s annual Singles Day online shopping event. In 2015, he succeeded co-founder Jack Ma as CEO of the company. He succeeded Ma as chairman in 2019.
SOURCE – (AP)
