Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba has announced the surprise departure of former CEO Daniel Zhang.
Hangzhou-based Alibaba is a leading Chinese technology company, with operations in cloud computing, e-commerce, logistics, media and entertainment, and artificial intelligence.
After years of turmoil in the Chinese IT sector, Alibaba announced in March the largest restructuring in its history, breaking itself into six organisations with the intention of listing them separately on the stock exchange.
On Monday, CEO Daniel Zhang was set to take over the firm’s new cloud computing business, which is now a separate entity.
However, two months after announcing his appointment, Alibaba announced that its now-former CEO was no longer with the firm.
“The board of our Company expresses its deepest appreciation to Mr Zhang for his contributions to Alibaba Group over the past 16 years,” the company said in a statement to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, where it is listed, late on Sunday.
