Jack Ma

There has been speculation this month that Ma or his e-commerce juggernaut Alibaba were in talks to take a stake in the newspaper's parent SCMP Group Ltd The China Daily newspaper reported rumors of the investment on November 9.

The deal announced on Friday will give the e-commerce giant access to more than half a billion online video users, accelerating its push into the Chinese digital media market.

Chinese leaders have been trying to reassure global markets that Beijing is able to manage the world's second-largest economy after a shock devaluation of the yuan and a summer stock market plunge fanned fears of a hard landing.

Ma said the fight against counterfeits is not a matter for Alibaba alone as they are sold everywhere. Only improved laws will help honest businesses to build competitive brands.

The founder and executive chairman of Alibaba said Tuesday that his country's savings rate and impending transition to a consumer-led economy mean China can weather a global slowdown. He suggested that China watchers usually get their prognostications wrong.

It would also be a potential embarrassment to founder Jack Ma and the underwriters who engineered Alibaba's market debut last September.

China's biggest e-commerce company, however, did not disclose, in its filing to the New York Stock Exchange, how much the two will invest in the buy-back as affiliated purchasers.

On Monday, Alibaba signalled it is no longer writing off its smaller competitor, making a USD 4.6 billion investment to give it more traction in two areas JD.com does well in: logistics and electronics.

New York-listed Alibaba will invest about 28.3 billion yuan (USD 4.63 billion) in Suning to become its second-largest shareholder, while Suning will buy no less than 27.8 million new shares of Alibaba for 14 billion yuan (USD 2.33 billion), the company said.

Evans ran Goldman's Asia business for almost 10 years, starting in the year the Wall Street outfit opened its brokerage business in the People's Republic. In that capacity he helped pick up and schmooze clients like Alibaba founder Jack Ma.

Chinese e-commerce leader Alibaba Group Holding Ltd is investing more than USD 100 million in Mei.com, a flash sales platform for luxury and fashion goods, according to a source with knowledge of the deal.

The company gave no size for the planned listing, which is pending approval by the NEEQ that operates China's leading over-the-counter (OTC) equity exchange.

Warren Buffett with USD 70.1 billion took the second slot on the list. Spain's Amancio Ortega (USD 65 billion) came in next.

Ma said working to incite such a conflict is his life's passion, and Alibaba's mission of globalizing e-commerce can help.

Criticized and even sued by luxury brand Gucci and others for facilitating the counterfeit goods trade, Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Group Holding has been quietly piloting a scheme to try to curb fakes at source.

The Prime Minister said as two major economies in Asia, "harmonious partnership" between India and China was essential for economic development and "political stability" of the continent. "You are the 'factory of the world'.

The vast bulk of Alibaba's revenue comes from its dominant domestic online marketplaces, but the company has been investing in a range of sectors abroad. Just this week it announced it would set up a cloud computing base in Dubai, and boosted its stake in US e-retailer Zulily Inc.

When Alibaba Group Holding Ltd's eccentric founder Jack Ma stepped down as CEO two years ago, he declared "the Internet belongs to young people," and promised that most of the company's leaders born in the 1960s would soon retreat from management.

Ma, the richest man in China with a fortune of about USD 24.4 billion, founded Alibaba in 1999 in Hangzhou, the capital of east China's Zhejiang Province.

The deal, which was being pegged at about USD 500-700 million, has hit a roadblock due to a high valuation demanded by Snapdeal, sources said.