Alibaba announces plans to divide the company into 6 units

Alibaba Group Holding Limited, the leading e-commerce, retail, and technology company in China, revealed it is splitting up the company into six units. This major change will totally transform the business empire that was founded by Jack Ma almost 25 years ago.

Alibaba said on Tuesday, March 28, that the six units would become separate companies. Each of the units will be a new business that will be managed by its own chief executive officer and will have its own board of directors as well.

The company said that since the units will stand as independent businesses, it would be possible for them to seek their own initial public offering (IPO). All of them will have the flexibility to raise outside capital too.

As per CNN Business, this major restructuring scheme of the Alibaba Group was announced just a day after Jack Ma was spotted in China. This was a rare public appearance since disappearing in 2020 at the height of Beijing’s crackdown on tech companies in the country.

Since re-appearing in public, the billionaire Alibaba founder has kept a low profile. Prior to the crackdown, he was known to be an outspoken businessman who appeared in business talks in and outside of the country.

“This transformation will empower all our businesses to become more agile, enhance decision-making, and enable faster responses to market changes,” the chief executive officer of the Alibaba Group, Daniel Zhang, said in an email to employees.

Meanwhile, as mentioned on CNBC, the six business groups that will be formed after the split are the Cloud Intelligence Group, Taobao Tmall Commerce Group, Local Services Group, Cainiao Smart Logistics, Global Digital Commerce Group, and the Digital Media and Entertainment Group that will be led by Fan Luyuan as its CEO.

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