The publisher of Hong Kong’s South China Morning Post says China’s Alibaba is buying the English-language newspaper for 2.06 billion Hong Kong dollars ($266 million).
SCMP Group revealed the sale price Monday in a filing to the Hong Kong stock exchange. The deal was announced on Friday but no amount was given for the transaction.
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/chinas-alibaba-pays-266m-hong-025059030.html
Alibaba Group Holding Ltd has agreed to pay HK$2.06 billion ($265.8 million) to acquire Hong Kong’s flagship English-language newspaper the South China Morning Post (SCMP), the newspaper group said in a statement on Monday.
Alibaba and SCMP Group Ltd announced on Friday the Hangzhou-based company would buy the 112-year-old newspaper and other media properties, but did not put a value on the deal.
The purchase, which follows a string of media deals by Alibaba, is likely to raise concerns in Hong Kong where the South China Morning Post occupies an important position and is seen as a barometer for press freedom under Chinese rule.
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-scmp-group-alibaba-idUSKBN0TX01S20151214#yG2VHOxzwQoBBs55.97
 Wall Street analysts tempered their view on Yahoo Inc’s stock after the company’s plans for a tax-free spinoff of its stake in Alibaba Group Holdings Ltd hit a snag.
The company’s shares were down 1.1 percent at $30.57 in early trading on Wednesday. At least nine brokerages cut their price targets on the stock, but kept their recommendations unchanged.
Yahoo said on Tuesday the U.S. Internal Revenue Service (IRS) denied its request for a private letter ruling (PLR) on a possible tax-free deal that could fetch it $23 billion.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/09/09/us-yahoo-divestiture-research-idUSKCN0R91CJ20150909
 Alibaba Group Holding Ltd (BABA.N) said on Tuesday it expected second-quarter gross merchandise volume (GMV) to be lower than its initial estimates due to weaker consumer spending in China.
The company’s shares reversed course and slipped as much as 3.1 percent to $61.91 in late afternoon trading. They had earlier gained as much as 4.5 percent.
Alibaba said it now expects GMV to be lower in mid-single digits on a percentage basis from its earlier estimates.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/09/08/us-alibaba-forecast-idUSKCN0R82EQ20150908
 Alibaba Group Holding’s stock price almost fell below the offering price set in the largest IPO in history as slow growth in its earnings rattled investors last week, said analysts.
Shares of the NYSE-listed Alibaba closed down $2.14 at $68.18 on Friday, leaving the stock just pennies above its 2014 IPO price of $68.
The fall in Alibaba’s stock came amid a plunge in the overall US stock market. The Dow Jones Industrial Average plummeted 530.9 points on Friday, concluding its worst week since 2011.
Alibaba’s arch-rival Baidu Inc slid by 2.85 percent to $152.9 on the NASDAQ. High-profile US tech company Twitter Inc fell below its 2013 IPO price on Thursday.
“The economic slowdown around the world, especially in China, worries global investors,” Lu Zhenwang, founder of Shanghai Wanqing Commerce Consulting, told the Global Times on Sunday.
In addition, investors have been bracing for the US Federal Reserve’s planned move to raise its benchmark interest rate in September. The Fed, however, has been sending mixed signals that have added uncertainty to the market, reports said.
“Besides the macroeconomic factors, Alibaba’s share slide is taking place because investors cannot see fast growth in either its core e-commerce business or fledgling operations,” said Lu.
China’s Alibaba Group Holding Ltd (BABA.N) said on Wednesday it would invest $1 billion into its Aliyun cloud computing arm to challenge Amazon.com Inc’s (AMZN.O) lucrative Web Services division, opening a global front in the battle between the two e-commerce giants.
With the global cloud computing market estimated by analysts to be worth about $20 billion, Alibaba said in a statement the investment would go toward setting up new Aliyun data centers in the Middle East, Singapore, Japan and Europe. The firm also plans to strike business partnerships with telecom and enterprise technology providers in those regions.
Although Alibaba and Amazon have so far avoided competing directly in their core business of e-commerce outside China, Aliyun’s international expansion takes aim squarely at Amazon Web Services (AWS), an increasingly central and profitable division of the Seattle-based company.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/07/29/us-alibaba-cloud-idUSKCN0Q30TP20150729
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