Alibaba CEO Steps Down as Head of Cloud Business

Shares of Alibaba Group (ticker: 9988.HK) were falling on Monday as former CEO Daniel Zhang announced his resignation from the company's cloud business.

Zhang, who stepped down as CEO on Sunday, will now focus solely on the cloud unit. Eddie Wu, his successor as CEO, will also oversee the cloud business. The cloud unit is China's largest provider of cloud computing services and is in the process of being spun off as Alibaba separates into six parts.

According to reports from Reuters and the South China Morning Post, Zhang's departure was disclosed in an internal memo. However, Alibaba did not comment on the matter.

Alibaba's Hong Kong-listed shares fell 2.7% on Monday, while its American depositary receipts experienced a 0.2% increase in premarket trading.

In June, Alibaba announced Zhang's transition from CEO to the cloud unit as part of the company's restructuring. Zhang had been serving as the CEO since 2015 and took on the additional role of chairman in 2019.

The company affirmed its commitment to the plan of spinning off the Alibaba Cloud Intelligence Group and revealed a $1 billion investment in Zhang's technology group.