China’s Alibaba sees shares tumble as outgoing CEO quits cloud business | Business and Economy

Announcement that Daniel Zhang won’t proceed to guide cloud enterprise takes markets abruptly.

China’s tech big Alibaba has introduced that its outgoing chief government can even step down from its cloud enterprise, sending the corporate’s shares tumbling.

Alibaba shares on Monday fell by 3.5 p.c following the shock announcement that CEO Daniel Zhang wouldn’t keep on to guide the e-commerce big’s cloud enterprise as deliberate.

Alibaba introduced in June that Zhang would step down as group CEO to focus solely on main the cloud intelligence unit.

Eddie Wu, who was set to take over from Zhang as group CEO and director in September, will now serve concurrently as chairman and CEO of the cloud enterprise on an interim foundation.

“The board of our Firm expresses its deepest appreciation to Mr. Zhang for his contributions to Alibaba Group over the previous 16 years, together with as Chief Government Officer since 2015 and as Chairman since 2019, in addition to his management of Alibaba Cloud Intelligence Group since 2022,” Alibaba stated in a press release to the Hong Kong Inventory Change late on Sunday.

In a letter signed by Alibaba co-founder Joseph Tsai, the agency stated Zhang had expressed his want to transition away from his function main the cloud unit.

“Following cautious consideration, the Alibaba board revered and accepted Daniel’s resolution and appointed Eddie as performing chairman and CEO of Cloud Intelligence Group, successfully instantly,” the corporate stated.

The letter stated Zhang would proceed to contribute to Alibaba by “channelling his experience in a different way”.

Zhang, who joined Alibaba in 2007, is maybe finest recognized for spearheading the corporate’s massively well-liked Singles’ Day procuring competition since its launch in 2009.

The previous accountant was appointed Alibaba chairman in 2019, taking on from the corporate founder Jack Ma.

Alibaba, which has its headquarters in Hangzhou, is considered one of China’s greatest and most influential tech corporations, with operations spanning e-commerce, cloud computing, logistics, media and synthetic intelligence.