VENTURE CAPITAL POST

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.

Jack Ma, executive chairman of Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Group Holding, isn't worried about slowing Chinese economic growth, he told a meeting of business and political leaders in Davos, Switzerland.

The founders of Alibaba Group Holding Ltd (BABA.N) and Tencent Holdings Ltd (0700.HK) were among a consortium of investors who purchased stakes in Ping An Insurance Group Co of China Ltd (2318.HK) (601318.SS) in a HK$36.5 billion ($4.7 billion) deal on Sunday, in one of the largest Hong Kong share offerings of the year.

Jack Ma, the founder of China's Alibaba Group Holding Ltd (BABA.N), said on Thursday the firm will set up an international version of its e-commerce marketplace Taobao to serve shoppers worldwide in multiple languages, including English and Chinese.

Alibaba Group Holding Ltd's (BABA.N) finance services arm "will definitely go public," Executive Chairman Jack Ma said on Tuesday, eyeing a mainland China listing for the e-commerce company's crown jewel.

Alibaba Group Holding Ltd's Executive Chairman Jack Ma said on Friday the e-commerce giant's deliveries in the annual Nov. 11 'Singles' Day' shopping event could be affected by next week's Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in Beijing.

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.

Chinese e-commerce firm Alibaba Group Holding Ltd said on Thursday it has changed the name of its Alipay financial services affiliate to Ant Financial Services Group as it steps up its push into the financial services industry.

Jack Ma, executive chairman of Alibaba Group Holding Ltd (BABA.N), has become China's richest man with a fortune estimated at $25 billion, underscoring the ascension of tech tycoons over real estate peers in the world's second biggest economy.

Alibaba Group Holding Ltd's initial public offering now ranks as the world's biggest in history at $25 billion, after the e-commerce giant and some of its shareholders sold additional shares.

Inside Alibaba, where co-founders are revered like rock stars, relatively few employees know about the soft-spoken executive who for years kept his same cramped office, unfashionable clothes and the self-effacing demeanor of a metalworker's son.

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.

Masayoshi Son's nose for an investment has turned a $20 million start-up punt on Alibaba into a stake worth maybe $50 billion or more as the Chinese e-commerce giant co-founded and led by Jack Ma heads to what could be the biggest U.S. tech IPO of all time.

Jack Ma, the founder and executive chair of Alibaba Group Holding, said investors and entrepreneurs can fall out like domestic couples squabbling over their children in a blog post published late on Monday as the Chinese e-commerce juggernaut prepares for its blockbuster initial public offering.

Part-way through Alibaba Group Holding Ltd's long-awaited IPO prospectus was a subtle, but striking, warning: investors should know that lead founder and executive chairman Jack Ma might work against the company's best interests.