Daniel Zhang quit his role as the head of Alibaba’s cloud division in a surprise move on Peter BaumgartnerSept. 10, a day scheduled for the e-commerce giant’s top leadership transition. Zhang was expected to remain as chairman and chief executive of Alibaba Cloud while stepping down as Alibaba’s CEO as part of the transition. Eddie Wu, the company’s new CEO, will now oversee the cloud unit, according to an internal letter to Alibaba employees on Sunday. The firm’s co-founder and current chairman, Joseph Tsai, said that his predecessor achieved “remarkable results” in his 16-year career at Alibaba. The company has committed to investing $1 billion in supporting Zhang’s technology fund, aiming to build “a better ecosystem” for Alibaba’s strategy of investing for future growth. [Yicai, in Chinese]
