Alibaba okays surprise departure of ex-CEO

BEIJING, Sept 11 (AFP): Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba has announced the surprise departure of former CEO Daniel Zhang, who had been set Monday to take charge of a key subsidiary as the firm undergoes a major restructuring.
Hangzhou-based Alibaba is one of China's most prominent technology firms, with business operations spanning cloud computing, e-commerce, logistics, media and entertainment, and artificial intelligence. After years of turbulence in the Chinese tech sector, Alibaba in March announced the biggest restructuring in its history, dividing itself into six entities, with the goal of listing them on the stock exchange separately.
Daniel Zhang was due to take charge of the firm's new cloud computing branch on Monday.
But two months after announcing his appointment, Alibaba said its now ex-boss was no longer with the company.
"The board of our Company expresses its deepest appreciation to Mr Zhang for his contributions to Alibaba Group over the past 16 years,".