VENTURE CAPITAL POST

E-commerce services provider Digital River Inc said on Thursday it entered into an agreement to be acquired by an investor group led by Siris Capital Group LLC for about $840 million.

Determined not to repeat a holiday season that left millions of packages delivered too late and customers seething, United Parcel Service Inc (UPS.N) and FedEx Corp (FDX.N) are investing heavily in new infrastructure - but the continued dynamic growth of e-commerce will test those efforts.

Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Group Holding Ltd is looking to expand its entertainment content offering on its Internet television set-top boxes through deals with studios in the United States, Bloomberg reported, citing people familiar with the matter.

Squeezed between cut-throat competition from online financing firms and rising funding costs, China's midsize banks are falling out of investors' favor as they increasingly lag behind the country's top five lenders.

Rocket Internet (RKET.DE), the global e-commerce investor, is selling its shares at 42.50 euros apiece, or the top of the price range, as investors flock to tap into a new wave of Internet start-up listings.

EBay Inc's agreement on Tuesday to spin off PayPal next year will give the unit more flexibility to strike deals in the rapidly evolving payments space as growth at the company's traditional e-commerce business slows.

Internet auction site eBay intends to drive a wave of consolidation in Russia's e-commerce market over the next couple of years, persuading smaller companies to get on board as the economy weakens.

The underwriters of Alibaba Group Holding Ltd BABA.N's IPO have issued additional shares, according to the Wall Street Journal, bringing the IPO's size to about $25 billion and making it the largest initial public offering in history.

Japan's SoftBank Corp said it expected a gain of about 500 billion yen ($4.6 billion) from Alibaba Group Holding's share listing in New York, where the Chinese e-commerce leader surged 38 percent on its first day of trade.

Alibaba Group Holding Ltd's record public offering of shares on Friday further spurred already elevated activity in Yahoo Inc's options, pushing volume on the U.S. Internet company to a one-day record high.

Investors looking to hedge their bets or speculate on the direction of Alibaba Group's IPO-BABA.N stock after its expected public sale of shares on Friday, will be able to trade its options in two weeks, as U.S. options exchanges are expected to list contracts on the company.

Alibaba Group Holding Ltd (IPO-BABA.N) has received enough orders for its record-breaking initial public offering to cover the entire deal within just two days of its launch, people familiar with the IPO process said on Wednesday.

China's Dalian Wanda group and Tencent Holdings Ltd (0700.HK) said on Friday they would set up a 5 billion yuan ($814 million) e-commerce joint venture with Baidu Inc (BIDU.O), as the firms push into the high-growth e-commerce sector.

Based on four reports from PwC, RMG, Fastlane Ventures and East-West Digital News, the rapid growth of the Russian venture capital market has stopped, East-West Digital News reported.

Powa Technologies Ltd has rolled out PowaTag, its e-commerce application that helps retailers and brands to reach their target customers and encourage them to buy their products, TechCrunch reported.