Deals
Alibaba Acquires 18% of China’s Twitter-Like Weibo From Sina
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Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. agreed to buy a stake of about 18 percent in Sina Corp.’s Weibo for $586 million, connecting China’s largest Twitter-like service with the nation’s biggest e-commerce company.
Alibaba, the Hangzhou-based company founded by billionaire Jack Ma, acquired preferred and ordinary shares and has the option to increase its stake to 30 percent at “a mutually agreed valuation,” according to a statement yesterday. The companies said they will also work on user-account connectivity, data exchange, and online payment and marketing.