Alibaba Group buy 25 percent stake from Yahoo
Yahoo Inc could be weeks away from selling 15 to 25% of Alibaba Group's stock back to China's largest e-commerce company, in a deal designed to eliminate complexities that had scuttled the parties' previous negotiations. Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. is near an agreement to buy back a 25 percent stake in itself from Yahoo! Inc. for about $7 billion and may announce a deal today. Reuters told that the latest deal would not be tax-free and would be much more straightforward.
Alibaba has been trying to buy back the stake for more than a year and stepped up efforts in September, when the U.S. company fired then-Chief Executive Officer Carol Bartz. Reducing the stake reduces Yahoo’s presence in China, the world’s largest Internet market, and makes a takeover of the U.S. company more likely.