Xiaomi boss's unexpected action

Xiaomi founder and CEO Lei Jun remains honorary chairman of Beijing Kingsoft Office Software, the company best known for its WPS Office suite.

According to a filing with the Shanghai-listed company on June 6, Mr. Lei will continue to serve as an advisor in the areas of technological innovation, governance and corporate culture. Although he is the “actual controller” of Kingsoft Office, the position carries no remuneration.

The reassignment comes as Mr. Lei takes on several key roles at the front lines of Xiaomi, including its smartphone, electric vehicle and semiconductor businesses. Meanwhile, Kingsoft Office shares rose 0.7% in trading on June 5.

In May, Mr. Lei shared on Weibo that he was going through “the most difficult time” since founding Xiaomi in 2010. The statement came after an accident involving the autonomous driving feature of the SU7 electric car that killed three people in late March. He said he had canceled many meetings, business trips and temporarily suspended social media interactions.

Unlike some Chinese tech entrepreneurs like ByteDance’s Zhang Yiming or PDD Holdings’ Colin Huang who choose to avoid the media, Mr. Lei has maintained an image as an active leader, often appearing in public. According to Forbes , his net worth is currently estimated at about $42 billion .

Having been with Kingsoft since 1992, Mr. Lei served as the company's CEO in 1998, then as its chief technology officer and chairman before stepping down in late 2007. After founding Xiaomi in 2010, he returned to Kingsoft as chairman in 2011.

WPS Office is now Kingsoft Office's flagship product, with 647 million monthly active devices globally, according to the company's own latest annual report. Last year, the software giant's revenue rose 12.4% to 5.1 billion yuan ( $0.7 billion ).

Source: https://znews.vn/hanh-dong-bat-ngo-cua-sep-xiaomi-post1559048.html