Alibaba on Tuesday said it plans to split its business into six separate units, in a move that promises to radically reshape the sprawling Chinese e-commerce firm that Jack Ma founded nearly 25 years ago.
Each new business unit will be overseen by its own chief executive and board of directors, the company said. Five of the new business groups “will also have the flexibility to raise outside capital and potentially to seek its own IPO,” according to a company statement on Tuesday.
The major restructuring at one of China’s most iconic companies comes one day after Ma made a rare public appearance in the country and as Beijing has signaled that its regulatory pressure on the internet industry may be coming to an end.
Ma, once an outspoken billionaire in the country, has kept a very low profile since the Chinese government began a fierce crackdown on the tech sector more than two years ago.
In November 2020, Ant Group — a financial affiliate of Alibaba also founded by Ma — was forced to pull its $37 billion IPO at the last minute following a speech from Ma in which he criticized China’s banks and financial regulators. The next year, Alibaba was hit with a record fine from China’s antitrust regulators.
Source: CNN
