Jack Ma
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Jack Ma cedes control of Chinese fintech giant Ant Group
Jack Ma had previously held more than 50 percent of voting shares at Ant Group.
Alibaba hit with $2.8 billion fine in China antitrust case
Chinese authorities have slapped Alibaba with a $2.8 billion fine after finishing an anti—trust investigation that looked into alleged monopolistic practices.
China pushes Alibaba founder Jack Ma to downsize his finance business
China’s crackdown on Jack Ma’s empire is far from over: The country’s regulators have ordered the Ma-founded Alibaba affiliate Ant Group to scale down its business. Ant Group started out as Alipay, which became China’s largest digital payment platform, though it eventually expanded to offer investment and savings accounts, as well as lending, insurance and wealth management services. Pan Gongsheng, the deputy governor of China’s central bank, called those services “illegal” and said the company must “strictly rectify” those activities.
Alibaba is facing an anti-monopoly probe by Chinese regulators
China’s market regulator has opened an investigation into Alibaba’s “suspected monopolistic conduct.” The State Administration for Market Regulation has posted a short statement on its website announcing the anti—monopoly probe. The regulator seems to have taken issue with Alibaba’s “choosing one from two” policy, in particular.
How artificial intelligence can be corrupted to repress free speech
The internet was supposed to become an overwhelming democratizing force against illiberal administrations. It didn't. It was supposed to open repressed citizens' eyes, expose them to new democratic ideals and help them rise up against their authoritarian governments in declaring their basic human rights. It hasn't. It was supposed to be inherently resistant to centralized control. It isn't.
Alibaba's massive IPO plans shift the focus from Silicon Valley to China
The recent big tech IPOs of companies like Facebook, Twitter and Tesla could all soon be dwarfed by a company with roots far outside Silicon Valley. Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Group just filed documents for its own offering (choosing to trade its stock in the US over Hong Kong) and while its value has not been determined, it could result in the biggest IPO ever when it's all said and done. Alibaba built its empire on a number of online sales platforms described as a blend of Amazon, eBay and Paypal, and its reach is starting to include the US, thanks to investments in companies like Lyft.
Alibaba spins out Aliyun team with $200 million investment, pep talk
You can imagine that the team building Alibaba's Aliyun mobile OS must have hurt feelings following Google's accusations that Aliyun is just a corruption of Android. 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.
Yahoo to sell back half of its Alibaba stake for $7.1 billion
It's been a bit of a sour year for Yahoo -- it's seen the departure of one of its founding fathers, suffered through a patent dispute with Facebook and lost its new CEO in a sea of scandalous accusations. Yikes. At least former head honcho Scott Thompson's negotiations to sell the firm's stake in Alibaba seem to be going through -- the two firms just announced plans to redistribute about half of Yahoo's 40-percent stake in said Chinese tech giant. Under the current agreement, Alibaba will purchase 20-percent of its fully diluted shares back from the Silicon Valley company, netting Yahoo $7.1 billion in compensation. Yahoo will also be permitted to sell an additional 10-percent of its stake in a future IPO, or else require Alibaba to purchase it back at the IPO price. Despite Yahoo's stake changing hands, the companies will still be working together -- Yahoo has cleared Alibaba to continue to operate Yahoo! China (which was acquired by the latter back in October 2005) under the Yahoo! brand for up to four years -- in exchange for royalty payments, of course. Finally, Alibaba will license various patents to Yahoo moving forward. What's next? Well, Alibaba CEO Jack Ma did let it slip at AsiaD that he's considered buying Yahoo as a whole, and repurchasing the firm's assets in Asia could be a step in that direction. Read on for the official press release in all its financial glory.
