Why Shares of JD.com Are Down Today
Shares of Chinese e-commerce giant JD.com (NASDAQ: JD) were trading more than 4% lower as of 11:30 a.m. ET Thursday after the company announced that founder Richard Liu was stepping down as CEO.
JD.com President Xu Lei will replace Liu as CEO, effective immediately, and will also join the board of directors. Liu will stay on as the chairman of the board. The transition caps the quick ascent of Lei, who was elevated to the at-that-time newly created role of company president last September, when Liu announced he was stepping back from the day-to-day aspects of running the company.
The announcement did not come as a huge surprise. Analysts anticipated a transition like this might happen after Lei was tapped as company president. At that time, Citigroup analysts said his installation in the new position showed that Lei had succeeded in growing "user acquisition and retention" in his prior role as CEO of the JD Retail unit. The analysts also said they "would not be surprised" if he eventually became CEO of the entire company.
Source Fool.com
