Alibaba announced today that in its fiscal fourth quarter ended last March 31 it recorded results above expectations: if it is true that net income fell by 49% to 463 million, equal to 0,18 dollars per share (we weigh mainly share bonuses awarded to employees), excluding extraordinary items, earnings per share instead rose by 7% to 0,48 euro. Revenues grew 45% to $2,81 billion, where analysts had forecast them at 2,77 billion.
Alibaba has notably benefited from the strong growth in user activity and its further advances in mobile, and at the same time as the publication of the accounts, the Chinese e-commerce giant also announced that CEO Jonathan Lu will leave his post from next 10 May and will be replaced by the current Chief Operating Officer Daniel Zhang. Lu will remain vice chairman of the group board. All this news is convincing the markets, allowing Alibaba's stock to make a great start to the stock market session: it gains 16% around 7,5 pm, approaching 86 dollars per share, after having scored a 10% increase in the pre-market %.
