| By Maureen O'Gara |
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| January 21, 2013 08:00 AM EST |
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Tapping no successor yet, Jack Ma, 48, said Tuesday he would be resigning as CEO of Alibaba on May 10 because he is no longer young enough for the Internet business.
"The Internet belongs to young people," he said. "This year, most of the Alibaba leaders who were born in the 1960s will retreat from management and execution roles as we hand over leadership responsibility to colleagues from the '70s and '80s generations. Because, we believe that they understand the future better than us, and they have a better chance at seizing the future."
He will remain chairman of the giant Chinese e-commerce company he started in 1999 responsible for its strategic direction while cultivating younger talent.
Alibaba is expected to IPO and has reportedly hired Goldman Sachs and Credit Suisse to take it out although Alibaba denies it.
It bought back half the 40% share in Alibaba held by Yahoo for $7.1 billion, a deal that valued the company at $35 billion. It could be the biggest IPO since Facebook.
Maureen O'Gara the most read technology reporter for the past 20 years, is the Cloud Computing and Virtualization News Desk editor of SYS-CON Media. She is the publisher of famous "Billygrams" and the editor-in-chief of "Client/Server News" for more than a decade. One of the most respected technology reporters in the business, Maureen can be reached by email at maureen(at)sys-con.com or paperboy(at)g2news.com, and by phone at 516 759-7025. Twitter: @MaureenOGara
