In line with the spin-off, Alibaba's cloud unit is planned to become an independent publicly listed company
Alibaba discloses plans to spin-off its cloud intelligence group. (Credit: N509FZ/Wikimedia Commons)
Alibaba Group has disclosed plans for a full spin-off of its cloud intelligence group through a stock dividend distribution to shareholders in the coming 12 months.
Earlier, the China-based technology company announced that five of its major business groups would be able to raise external funds and pursue their own initial public offering.
Alibaba’s board of directors has approved the spin-off of its cloud unit.
The company intends to include external strategic investors in the cloud intelligence unit through private financing prior to the spin-off.
In line with the spin-off, Alibaba’s cloud unit is planned to become an independent publicly listed company.
Alibaba Group CEO and chairman Daniel Zhang said: “In an increasingly complex world, we have proactively transformed our organization to strengthen the competitiveness of our businesses through greater independence to address the evolving needs of different customers and capture new opportunities.
“We are taking concrete steps towards unlocking value from our businesses and are pleased to announce that our board has approved a full spin-off of the Cloud Intelligence Group via a stock dividend distribution to shareholders, with intention for it to become an independent publicly listed company.”
The company announced its plans through its March quarter and full fiscal year 2023 results.
The ecommerce major has reported a net income of $10.6bn for the fiscal year 2023 ended 31 March 2023, compared to a net income of $9.5bn in the previous fiscal year.
Alibaba reported revenue of $126.4bn, an increase of 2% year-over-year, for the fiscal year 2023.
The spin-off is conditional on the restructuring of certain assets, liabilities, and contracts, market conditions, implementation of employee equity incentive plans, and regulatory reviews and approvals.
In April 2023, Alibaba Cloud introduced its latest artificial intelligence (AI) model called Tongyi Qianwen to facilitate the intelligence transformation of enterprises.