VENTURE CAPITAL POST

JD.com Inc, China's No. 2 e-commerce player, on Wednesday launched its JD Worldwide cross-border online shopping platform, a challenger to Alibaba Group Holding Ltd's Tmall Global service.

Germany's BMG music rights company said on Monday it had signed a music digital distribution deal with China's Alibaba Group Holding Ltd, as the world's largest e-commerce firm firms up its bid to become a digital media empire.

Chinese auto maker SAIC Motor Corp Ltd said on Thursday it would join forces with e-commerce giant Alibaba Group Holding Ltd to invest 1 billion yuan ($160 million) in a fund to develop Internet-connected cars.

Yahoo Inc shareholder Starboard Value LP said the company's spinoff of its stake in Alibaba Group Holding Ltd was a "good first step" but it could do more, including a share buyback of up to $4 billion.

Amazon.com Inc has opened an online store on Alibaba Group Holding Ltd's fast-growing online marketplace, Tmall.com as it seeks to expand in China, an Alibaba spokesman said.

Alibaba Group Holding Ltd is launching a cloud computing hub in Silicon Valley on Wednesday, the e-commerce giant's first outside of China, underscoring its global ambitions in the face of stiff and entrenched competition.

Ant Financial Services Group, Alibaba's affiliate which runs online payment platform Alipay, is seeking to raise up to $4 billion in a private placement of shares and is looking at a domestic IPO in 2017, the state-run Shanghai Securities News reported.

Several of the biggest hedge fund managers slashed or dissolved their stake in China's Alibaba Group Holding Ltd at the end of last year, taking a prescient bet ahead of the company's surprise revenue miss last quarter that sent shares plunging in late January.

Didi Dache and Kuaidi Dache, two of China's leading taxi-hailing apps, said on Saturday they would merge to create one of the world's largest smartphone-based transport services.

Xiaomi [XTC.UL], China's largest smartphone company, will begin selling headphones, smart wristbands and other accessories online in the United States in coming months, taking its first tentative step onto Apple Inc's home turf without its signature Mi mobile devices.

China's Alibaba Group Holding Ltd is taking a $590 million stake in an obscure domestic smartphone maker as the e-commerce giant tests ways to expand its mobile operating system in a shrinking, cut-throat handset market.

Alibaba Group Holding Ltd's underwhelming holiday quarter performance and an escalating war of words with a powerful Chinese industry regulator highlight two major risks to its seemingly fairy-tale ascent: politics and the shift to mobile commerce.

Asian stocks showed some resilience on Wednesday as investors speculated whether the Federal Reserve could take a dovish turn in its post-meeting statement later in the session, amid signs a stronger dollar was hurting U.S. corporate profits.

EBay Inc's plans to break up into three different companies could accommodate would-be suitors, signaling a potential merger fight after the breakup.

China's Alibaba Group Holding Ltd (BABA.N), the world's biggest e-commerce company, is piloting a mobile messaging app aimed at marrying social networking with business, an Alibaba spokeswoman said on Friday, as the company expands its enterprise services.