China e-commerce giant Alibaba outlines future strategy

By ZEN SOO
AP Technology Writer

HONG KONG (AP) — Top executives of Chinese e-commerce and financial giant Alibaba say it plans to spin off some of its sprawling e-commerce and finance empire as independent businesses to make them more flexible and maximize their value. Alibaba CEO Daniel Zhang outlined details of a plan announced earlier this week to split Alibaba into six main groups as a prelude toward stock listings of some of its companies. In a conference call, Zhang said Alibaba will become more of a holding company and controlling shareholder of group companies. The restructuring plan marks a new stage in Alibaba’s growth after a series of setbacks as regulators cracked down on it and other tech companies.