Alibaba exec moves to quell staff concern over Jack Ma share sale with internal post

SHANGHAI/BEIJING – A top Alibaba executive told staff on Nov 22 that it was a “coincidence” that a plan by former chief Jack Ma’s family trust to sell some shares in the firm was disclosed on the same day the

firm scrapped its cloud unit’s listing

.

In a move seen as an effort to quell ongoing unease within the e-commerce giant, Ms Jiang Fang, an Alibaba partner and its chief talent officer, said in a post on the firm’s intranet seen by Reuters that Mr Ma’s office had earlier in 2023 made a plan to sell some shares to reinvest in agriculture and public welfare projects.

They were required by United States securities rules to disclose the plan by mid-November, she said.

“Nov 16 happened to be the disclosure time set, but the stockbrokers did not know that this day was the day when the company was set to release its financial report,” Ms Jiang said, adding that the coincidence had created a “severe misunderstanding”.

Investors wiped some US$20 billion (S$26.8 billion) off Alibaba’s market value on Nov 17 after the company abruptly scrapped plans to spin off its cloud and groceries businesses.

Analysts also said a regulatory filing that came out hours before the disclosure saying that Mr Ma’s family trust intended to sell 10 million American depository shares in Alibaba hurt sentiment as it raised eyebrows about Mr Ma’s commitment to the future of the company he co-founded.

Two company sources told Reuters that Mr Ma’s move had generated a lot of discussion within the company, as did Ms Jiang’s post.

Alibaba did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Jack Ma Foundation, the philanthropic organisation that handles media queries for the billionaire, said in a statement to Reuters that the reported stock sale had not occurred, adding that the messages Ms Jiang posted on the Alibaba intranet were all factual.

In her internal note, Ms Jiang also repeated comments from Mr Ma’s family office shared with Alibaba-owned newspaper South China Morning Post on Nov 17 that Mr Ma remained “very positive” about Alibaba and that his family trust eventually did not sell a single share.

Ms Jiang also said rumours that the company was going to lay off 25,000 people were untrue, adding that Alibaba had filed a police report over the matter.

Alibaba in March announced plans to carve out the cloud business as part of a restructuring, the biggest in its 24-year history, that broke the company up into six units.

The company has also been grappling with some upheaval in its top ranks, welcoming a new chief executive, Mr Eddie Wu, in September.

That same month, former group chief executive Daniel Zhang abruptly quit his position as cloud unit head, just two months after announcing that his new focus would be cloud computing. REUTERS