The logo of DingTalk is seen, an offshoot of Alibaba Group Holding Ltd, in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province, China July 20, 2018. REUTERS/Aly Song Acquire Licensing Rights
SHANGHAI, Aug 16 (Reuters) – Alibaba Group’s (9988.HK) work communication and collaboration platform DingTalk will split from the company’s cloud division, according to two sources close to the company.
The sources could not confirm the exact timing of the split and also did not confirm news reported by Chinese media outlet Caixin on Wednesday that DingTalk would pursue its own IPO in the near future.
DingTalk will operate as a wholly-owned subsidiary of Alibaba Holding Group and there would be no impact on its services, one source said.
Alibaba’s Cloud Intelligence Business Group did not immediately reply to a request for comment on the matter.
Though the Slack-like DingTalk will split structurally from Alibaba’s Cloud Business Intelligence unit, the sources said it would continue to work closely with the cloud division technology-wise.
Alibaba’s cloud division is itself working towards a public listing, having flagged it would be the first of the Group’s newly created six business units to IPO.
The tech giant announced the split of its business in March and has said the cloud division was likely to IPO by May next year.
Alibaba Group last week reported better than expected results for its first quarter, but sales for its Cloud Intelligence Business Group, a major growth driver outside of e-commerce, reported the smallest revenue growth among the group’s business units of 4%.
Reporting by Casey Hall; Editing by Himani Sarkar and Conor Humphries
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