BEIJING—Jack Ma, who founded e-commerce giant Alibaba Group and helped launch China’s e-commerce boom, announced Monday he will step down as the company’s chairman next September. In a letter released by Alibaba, Ma said he will be succeeded by CEO Daniel Zhang, an 11-year veteran of the company. Ma, known in Chinese as Ma Yun, has become one of China’s best-known public figures. The company’s $25 billion initial public offering on the New York Stock Exchange in September 2014 was the biggest to date by a Chinese company. Alipay became a free-standing financial company, Ant Financial, in 2014.

Source: thestar September 10, 2018 03:11 UTC