Daniel Zhang will continue to contribute to Alibaba by “channeling his expertise in a different way”
Shanghai:
China’s Alibaba Group said on Sunday that Daniel Zhang will step down from its cloud business, in a surprise move just two months after the company announced he would leave his role as CEO and chairman of the group to focus on its cloud unit.
Daniel Zhang previously held three positions simultaneously, leading both the group and the cloud department.
As planned, he handed over the role of group CEO on Sunday to Eddie Wu, who will also take charge of the cloud business after Daniel Zhang’s departure, the company said in a statement.
The cloud business is a key part of a restructuring the Chinese e-commerce giant announced in March that will split the company into six units, each with its own boards of directors and CEOs.
Alibaba said in May it aimed to complete the listing of its cloud unit within the next 12 months and on Sunday the company said it would continue to execute the spinoff plan under a separate, yet-to-be-appointed management team.
“Daniel has expressed his desire to relinquish his role as chairman and CEO of Cloud Intelligence Group,” the company said in an internal letter to Reuters staff signed by Joseph Tsai, an Alibaba co-founder who also took the helm . Daniel Zhang’s chairman role as scheduled on Sunday.
“After careful consideration, Alibaba’s board respected and accepted Daniel’s decision and appointed Eddie as acting chairman and CEO of Cloud Intelligence Group, effective immediately.”
Daniel Zhang will continue to contribute to Alibaba by “channeling his expertise in other ways,” the letter added, which said Alibaba will invest $1 billion in a technology fund that Daniel Zhang would establish.
“The fund will support Alibaba’s strategy to invest in future growth and further develop our technology ecosystem.”
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
