Alibaba

According to the latest speculations in the media source Yahoo has at last resolved its problems with Alibaba over transferring Alipay payment system.

One of the sources reports that the companies reached an agreement before Yahoo's analyst meeting last Wednesday. However, the deal requires the consent of Softbank Corp founder Masayoshi Son, an Alibaba board member, who has been reluctant to come to the negotiating table.

Yahoo claimed it had been blindsided last month by Alibaba's restructuring of Alipay. Meantime, Alibaba said that Yahoo was aware of the transaction.

Yahoo Inc. and Alibaba Group made a statement on Sunday that they are negotiating to resolve differences over the spin-off of Alibaba’s online payment business Alipay.

A Chinese ecommerce giant Alibaba and major stockholders Yahoo and Softbank Corp. are in talks “to resolve the outstanding issues related to online payment system Alipay in a manner that serves the interests of all shareholders as soon as possible,” the statement said.

Google’s star is further declining in China after its almost-year ago conflict with the government over censorship and hacking. As Chinese advertisers have continued fleeing from its client base Google not only lost its search market share but slid to the third place in online advertising.

Owen Fletcher reports: "In a breakdown of Chinese online advertising market share, Beijing research firm Analysys International says Alibaba has overtaken Google for second place behind Baidu thanks in large part to its online shopping unit Taobao."

Chinese ecommerce giant Alibaba Group is seeking funds to buyout 40% of the stake held by Yahoo as it looks for a chance to put an end to its relationship with the Carol Bartz led company because it is itself now a takeover target, according to a source familiar with the case.

Jack Ma, a founder of Alibaba, was talking with private equity companies in an effort to assemble a special-purpose acquisition fund for the express purpose of buying the Yahoo stake, said the source on condition of anonymity.

Latest rumors on the Internet say that several companies are considering the purchase of Yahoo again. As the speculations surfaced the stocks of Yahoo began soaring. The speculations say that no certain offering has yet been made but possible buyers include AOL with venture capital firms Blackstone Group and Silver Lake Partners and News Corp.

Taobao, a subsidiary of Chinese ecommerce company Alibaba Group launched its trial project to test a new search engine to compete with Baidu. The company launched the beta test of Etao past Saturday.

"Etao is a shopping search engine launched by Taobao and its in beta testing at the moment," a Taobao spokeswoman said in a statement on Tuesday.

Etao, www.etao.com, provides not only vertical search options for e-commerce, but also a comprehensive search engine powered by Microsoft's Bing search engine.

Largest online retailer in China Taobao.com is conducting experiments with a new shopping search engine called etao, a company spokesman reported. No other details were given by the Alibaba Group subsidiary about the new search engine. Meantime, analysts expect the move to bolster the company's position as the top online retail and auction site in China.

Alibaba wants to see Yahoo off their company as the relations between the two are increasingly getting more strained according to a source with the knowledge of the matter.

"Alibaba Group management has come to believe it's in the best long-term interest of all Alibaba Group shareholders for Yahoo to make a partial or complete exit," the source added.

eBay and its Chinese counterpart Alibaba announced they will explore online partnerships that could help their users in China and the U.S., the heads of both companies said on Friday. During a forum sponsored by Alibaba, chief executives with both companies say they can achieve more by leveraging each others' advantages.

China's Alibaba unveiled today it’s to rethink its relationship with Yahoo, after Yahoo Hong Kong executive announced the company may compete in the China’s online ad market.

Such a move could put Yahoo Hong Kong, the territory's leading portal, in direct competition with Alibaba Group's subsidiaries, such as Alibaba.com.

Chinese ecommerce giant Alibaba.com Ltd announced another acquisition of the US company. This time Alibaba is purchasing an eBay Assistant company Auctiva.

The Chinese company said it has entered into an agreement to buy Auctiva, which provides listing and marketing tools to vendors on e-commerce websites like eBay holds a nearly 40 percent stake.

Alibaba Group is entering the search engine market with the acquisition of a stake in a search engine operated by Sohu.com Inc. While the terms of the deal have not been yet finalized Sohu announced in a statement that it will sell 16% share in its Sogou search engine unit to Alibaba and a fund owned by its chairman, Jack Ma. Another 16% would be sold to a fund operated by Sohu Chairman Charles Zhang.

At present time the main leaders in Chinese search market are Baidu with a 70% share and Google with 24.2%. Sohu's search engine controls only 0.8 percent of the market.

Leading Chinese ecommerce company Alibaba.com unveiled its plans to acquire Vendio Services Inc as a first step in its move to further expand in the global market.

Vendio Services, Inc. is an American Internet software as a service (SaaS) company that provides sales management software by subscription. A majority of customers use Vendio for its eBay auction management program and eBay applications.

Taobao, a subsidiary of Alibaba Group, and Yahoo! JAPAN have partnered to launch a conjoint initiative that will allow Chinese small businesses on Taobao to offer quality products via e-retail to consumers in Japan while enabling Japanese merchants on Yahoo! JAPAN Shopping to access increasingly sophisticated Chinese consumers.

Sunday, Alibaba.com announced the launch of AliExpress, an e-commerce platform offering smaller-quantity orders, instant online transactions, and an escrow service to protect buyers and sellers.