Alibaba spins out Aliyun team with $200 million investment, pep talk

[ ](http://www.engadget.com/2012/09/22/alibaba-spins-out-aliyun-team-with-200-million-investment/)

You can imagine that the team building Alibaba's [Aliyun](http://www.engadget.com/tag/Aliyun/) mobile OS must have [hurt feelings](http://www.engadget.com/2012/09/15/google-wants-better-compatibility-for-android/) following Google's accusations that Aliyun is just a [corruption of Android](http://www.engadget.com/2012/09/16/google-senior-vp-of-mobile-aliyun-os/). Alibaba chief Jack Ma is keen to restore some of that wounded pride, at least on the surface. The CEO has used a since-confirmed staff memo to spin out Aliyun as a separate entity that will "safeguard the healthy growth" of the platform and Alibaba's mobile strategy. It's not solely an instance of tough love, either: Alibaba is putting $200 million into the new firm and will use executive Wang Jian as a link between the two sides, having him serve as the CTO for both companies. With that in mind, Ma's ultimate intentions aren't clear. While the separation may be a sign of a tighter focus on software, it also reduces the impact for Alibaba if anything drags Aliyun down -- and either motivation would be helpful for a company devoted to the web before anything else.

Filed under: [Cellphones](http://www.engadget.com/category/cellphones/), [Mobile](http://www.engadget.com/category/mobile/)

[Alibaba spins out Aliyun team with $200 million investment, pep talk](http://www.engadget.com/2012/09/22/alibaba-spins-out-aliyun-team-with-200-million-investment/) originally appeared on [Engadget](http://www.engadget.com) on Sat, 22 Sep 2012 12:41:00 EDT. Please see our [terms for use of feeds](http://www.weblogsinc.com/feed-terms/).

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