The company also confirmed that Joe Tsai will be succeeding Zhang as chairman and that Zhang will remain at the head of the Alibaba Cloud Intelligence Group, holding the titles of both chairman and CEO. This alteration will move into effect starting Sept. 10.
Alibaba Group declared unexpectedly on Tuesday that Eddie Wu will take over as its chief executive from Daniel Zhang, allowing Zhang to shift his focus to the cloud intelligence unit of the company. The reorganization of the firm into six business divisions which began in March follows a period of economic difficulty in China and increased oversight from Beijing, both of which had a damaging effect on the company's financial performance. Zhang commented in an internal memo to staff that "development of core technologies such as cloud computing, big data and AI will lead to a tremendous transformation of our society and is of utmost strategic significance." He also included that "Cloud Intelligence Group is now full speed ahead on its spin-off plans and we are approaching a crucial stage of the process, so it is the right time for me to dedicate my full attention and time to the business". In spite of the news, Alibaba's stock only slightly dropped to 1% in the Hong Kong market on Tuesday afternoon.
It has been declared that Joe Tsai, owner of the Brooklyn Nets, and Executive Vice Chairman of Alibaba, shall be succeeding Zhang as Group Chairman. Zhang will still be heading the Alibaba Cloud Intelligence Group as chairman and chief executive, with the change commencing from September 10th.
Alibaba announced last month that it will be spinning off its cloud computing division with the hope of having it become an independent, publicly listed company within the next year. Zhang, in an internal memo, added that clear separation between the board and the management was needed to ensure that the Cloud Intelligence Group was successful in its endeavor. Besides cloud computing, the remaining five business units of the company are Taobao Tmall, Local Services, Cainiao Smart Logistics, Global E-commerce, and Digital Media and Entertainment; the former of which will remain wholly owned by Alibaba. The purpose of the entire reorganization is to provide agility, enable access to external capital, and afford the potential of getting listed. Taking over Zhang's responsibilities will be Wu, one of Alibaba's founders and chairman of the Taobao and Tmall Group.
Wu has served many positions while employed at the company, including founding technology at Alibaba's launch, as well as chief technology officer at Alipay and Taobao. He was also director of Alibaba Health Information Technology and established Vision Plus Capital, an investment firm devoted to investing in innovations, corporate services and digital health care. In 2015, Zhang was named Alibaba's chief executive and recently stepped into the role of chairman in 2019, taking over from Jack Ma.Note: This article has been updated to indicate that Zhang only filled the chairman position vacated by Jack Ma.
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