By Senad Karaahmetovic
Shares of Alibaba (NYSE:BABA) are trading about 5% higher in premarket Tuesday after Bloomberg News reported the company is planning to divide its business into six new business units.
Each of the separate businesses may seek initial public offerings (IPOs) “when the time is right,” according to the report. Alibaba’s core business remains e-commerce, although the company has also made great progress with its cloud and media businesses.
“Each business group and company can pursue independent fundraising and IPOs when they are ready,” Alibaba’s CEO Daniel Zhang said in a statement to Bloomberg.
Zhang will reportedly be in charge of the cloud intelligence division, which shows the importance of the cloud and AI for the Chinese tech giant.
Jiang Fan, who used to be the international retail chief at Alibaba, is lined up to head up the digital business unit while senior executive Trudy Dai is seen as the head of the new Taobao Tmall online shopping division.