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Alibaba CEO and Chairman Zhang to step down to focus on cloud business

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Alibaba Group on Tuesday said its CEO and chairman Daniel Zhang will step down from the roles to focus on its cloud division as the Chinese e-commerce giant moves ahead with a plan to split into six business units.

Zhang has been concurrently serving in three roles since December when he took over as head of the cloud unit after it suffered an outage that it described as its “longest major-scale failure” for over a decade.

The CEO role will be handed over to Eddie Yongming Wu, chairman of Alibaba (NYSE:BABA)’s Taobao and Tmall Group, while Executive Vice Chairman Joseph Tsai will take over Zhang as chairman.

Both appointments will take effect on Sept. 10, Alibaba said.

“The appointment of Daniel to focus on running cloud is really a show of confidence and trust in him to take the most precious business and run with it to develop it in the right way given this age of generative artificial intelligence (AI),” said Brian Wong, a former Alibaba employee and author of the book, “The Tao of Alibaba”.

“The idea or expectation that one person could manage the business’ crown jewel Cloud and at the same time manage the entire Alibaba Group is an unreasonable expectation.”

The surprise reshuffle comes after a tumultuous two years that saw Alibaba heavily targeted by increased regulatory scrutiny and after the group announced in March that it would restructure into six units, each with their own boards and CEOs.

Its China-facing e-commerce division, which includes the Taobao and Tmall marketplaces, will stay wholly owned by Alibaba, but the other five units will be spun off, with Alibaba saying in May it aimed to complete the public listing of its cloud unit within the next 12 months.

Zhang, in a memo to staff seen by Reuters, said the cloud spin-off was approaching a crucial stage and that it was the right time for him to dedicate his attention to the business.

“From a corporate governance perspective, we also need clear separation between the board and management team as the Cloud Intelligence Group proceeds down the path to becoming an independent public company,” he said.

“It would be inappropriate for me to continue serving as chairman and CEO of both companies at the same time during the spin-off process.”

Analysts have estimated the cloud unit to be worth $41 billion to $60 billion but have said the reams of data it oversees could put it in the cross-hairs of regulators at home and abroad.

SINGLES DAY

Zhang, a former accountant, joined Alibaba in 2007 and is known for being the architect behind the company’s annual flagship “Singles Day” shopping festival. He has served as CEO since 2015 and took on the chairmanship in 2019, succeeding both roles from Alibaba co-founder Jack Ma.

Alibaba thanked Zhang for his “extraordinary leadership in navigating unprecedented uncertainties affecting the company’s business over the past few years.”

Alibaba’s Hong Kong-listed shares fell 1.5% after the announcement, in line with a 1.6% decline in the benchmark index, as analysts viewed the reshuffle as being in line with the overall restructuring previously announced.

“Under the new structure, the group will play a smaller role in setting strategies for the six business groups, so instilling Alibaba founders Joe and Eddie as chairman and CEO likely serves the purpose of ensuring smooth leadership transition and maintaining culture,” Shanghai based Independent analyst Eric Chen, who publishes on Smartkarma, told Reuters.

Wu, who co-founded Alibaba alongside Ma and Tsai over two decades ago, will continue to concurrently serve as chairman of Taobao and Tmall Group, Alibaba said. His previous roles include chief technology officer of Alipay and chairman of Alibaba Health.

Wu’s elevation to CEO “is a natural transition and signals the unswerving importance of e-commerce in the company’s roadmap,” said Jacob Cooke, co-founder and CEO of WPIC Marketing + Technologies, a Beijing-based e-commerce consultancy.

Cooke said he did not see the leadership changes as signalling a major strategic shift within Alibaba, given that the individuals are co-founders and close associates of Ma.

“If anything, it emphasises the increasing importance of AI in the company’s focus, while also underscoring that e-commerce is the core business unit.”

COMPETITION

Ma, China’s best-known entrepreneur, has stayed out of the public eye since late 2020 after a speech in which he criticised Chinese regulation, and which is widely seen as triggering an ensuing crackdown.

Ma left mainland China in late 2021 – appearing in photographs in Japan, Spain, Australia and Thailand – and returned in March, a day before Alibaba announced its restructuring. He has not made any public comments during that period.

Last week, Alibaba president J. Michael Evans said Ma remained Alibaba’s biggest shareholder and cared very much about the company. He said Ma was teaching at a university in Tokyo and was also spending more time in China.

Chinese tech news outlet LatePost on Monday reported that Ma convened a meeting with leaders from Taobao and Tmall Group where he highlighted severe competition and discussed the need to return focus to users, the internet and Taobao – whose merchants are mostly individuals or small businesses – to stay relevant.

Alibaba did not respond to a Reuters request for comment on the LatePost report, which cited company sources.

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Hamas says it has approved Israeli list of 34 hostages for possible deal

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© Reuters. Smoke billows in the Gaza Strip, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, as seen from southern Israel, January 5, 2025. REUTERS/Kai Pfaffenbach

CAIRO (Reuters) – Palestinian militant group Hamas has approved a list of 34 hostages presented by Israel to be exchanged in a possible ceasefire deal, a group official told Reuters on Sunday.

The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter, also reiterated that any deal is contingent upon reaching an agreement on an Israeli withdrawal from Gaza and a permanent ceasefire.

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Israeli strikes kill 14 people in Gaza, mediators strive for a truce deal

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By Nidal al-Mughrabi and Dawoud Abu Alkas

CAIRO/GAZA (Reuters) -Israeli airstrikes killed at least 14 Palestinians in three separate attacks in the Gaza Strip on Sunday, taking the weekend death toll to 102, Palestinian medics said, as U.S. and Arab mediators stepped up efforts to conclude a ceasefire deal.

Health officials said an Israeli airstrike killed five people in a house in the Nuseirat camp in central Gaza, while another airstrike killed four others in Jabalia in the northern edge of the enclave, where Israeli forces have been operating for three months.

Later on Sunday, an Israeli airstrike hit a police station in Khan Younis in southern Gaza, killing five people, medics said. It was not immediately clear if all the dead were policemen.

The Israeli military said it struck Hamas militants operating from the humanitarian area in Khan Younis, and an Islamic Jihad militant who carried out attacks from the humanitarian area in Dier al-Balah.

Earlier on Sunday, the health ministry of Hamas-run Gaza said Israeli strikes across the territory had killed at least 88 Palestinians and wounded more than 200 others in the past 24 hours.

In Gaza City’s Sheikh Radwan neighbourhood, relatives and neighbours rushed to the Zuhd family’s house, which was struck by an Israeli airstrike late on Saturday, killing seven people, medics said. The search continued on Sunday morning for four others believed to be trapped under the rubble.

A hand belonging to one of the dead could be seen amongst the ruins, with the rest of his body buried under collapsed masonry. Three men removed dirt with their bare hands to retrieve bodies and search for possible survivors.

“Three young men, the son’s wife, and three children are still here. We retrieved this cousin of mine. Another cousin has been martyred and is now in the hospital. Approximately 11 people have been martyred here,” Ammar Zuhd, a relative, told Reuters.

ISRAEL SAYS DOZENS OF HAMAS MILITANTS KILLED

The Israeli military said in a statement on Sunday that its forces had attacked more than 100 targets across Gaza over the weekend, killing dozens of Hamas militants. It said it had also destroyed rocket launching sites that had been used to wage attacks on Israel in recent days.

Later on Sunday, it said it killed an Islamic Jihad militant last week in the Jabaliya area of northern Gaza. Sa’ed Saeed Zaki Dahnoun participated in the Oct. 7 cross-border attack on Israel, the military said.

A renewed push is underway to reach a ceasefire in the war between Israel and Hamas, and return Israeli hostages who were taken to Gaza, before U.S. President-elect Donald Trump takes office on Jan. 20.

Israeli negotiators were dispatched on Friday to resume talks in Doha brokered by Qatari and Egyptian mediators, while U.S. President Joe Biden’s administration, which is helping to mediate, urged Hamas to agree to a deal.

Hamas said it was committed to reaching an agreement as soon as possible, but it was unclear how close the two sides were.

© Reuters. Gaza City, January 5, 2025. REUTERS/Dawoud Abu Alkas

Israel launched its assault on Gaza in response to an Oct. 7, 2023 attack by Hamas militants on communities in southern Israel, killing about 1,200 people and taking about 250 hostages, according to Israeli tallies.

Israel’s military campaign, with the stated goal of eradicating Hamas, has leveled swathes of the enclave, driving most people from their homes, and has killed 45,805 Palestinians, according to the Gaza health ministry.

(Reporting and writing by Nidal al-Mughrabi. Additional reporting by Dawoud Abu Alkas in Gaza and Maytaal Angel in Jerusalem; Editing by Sharon Singleton and Emelia Sithole-Matarise)

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Massive winter storm to clobber U.S. from Plains to East Coast

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By Rich McKay

(Reuters) – Millions of Americans from the Plains to the East Coast faced the threat of blizzards, heavy snow, treacherous ice and freezing rain through Monday, the National Weather Service said on Saturday.

Governors in Kentucky and Virginia declared states of emergency ahead of the winter storm.

“The storm is still taking shape,” meteorologist Rich Bann of the NWS’s Weather Prediction Center said Saturday evening. “But this thing has multiple hazards from heavy snows in the Plains to significant icing covering roads farther south.”

He added that more than 60 million people in the U.S. were affected by winter weather warnings, watches or advisories this weekend.

A swath extending eastward from Nebraska and Kansas through Ohio, Indiana, southwestern Pennsylvania and northwestern Virginia could see from 1 inch (2.54 cm) to 1 foot (30 cm) of snow. Ice could knock out power lines and cause widespread outages.

A wintry mess of freezing rain and ice will hit southern Missouri, Kentucky and Tennessee on Sunday, Bann said, likely making roads hazardous and downing power lines.

“It’ll be nearly impossible to drive in some areas,” he said.

© Reuters. Winter storm. Interstate 70, Topeka, Kansas, January 5, 2025. Evert Nelson/The Capital-Journal/USA Today Network via REUTERS

The Kansas City International Airport in Missouri closed temporarily on Saturday afternoon due to rapid ice accumulation, officials said on social media.

Bann said that the storm should move past the East Coast and into the Atlantic Ocean by late on Monday, but a new blast of Arctic air will bring frigid cold to the eastern two-thirds of the U.S. by the middle of next week.

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