Yahoo amended its planned share sale of its holdings in the Alibaba Group and decided to keep a larger stake of the Chinese e-commerce firm. Originally, Yahoo agreed to sell up to 261.5 million shares of the 523.6 million shares it owns in Alibaba. However, it reduced the number to only a maximum of 208 million shares on Tuesday. Yahoo could choose to sell the stake directly to Alibaba or through the Chinese giant's IPO, according to a Reuters report.

Yahoo said it would then be able to sell its remaining holdings in Alibaba to whoever it wishes after the latter goes public. However, an Alibaba spokesman said any plans to sell shares of Alibaba would be done one year after the e-commerce giant's IPO. This was because the terms of a previous agreement regarding a lock-up period was still in place.

Alibaba was expected to file for an IPO to raise an estimated USD 15 billion next year. It has not decided yet on which exchange to list after the firm decided not to proceed with a Hong Kong IPO earlier this year.