Deals
Alibaba’s Ma Takes on Tencent’s Ma With Stake in Weibo Service
This article is for subscribers only.
Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. committed to invest $586 million in a Chinese Twitter-like service as billionaire Jack Ma expands his campaign to lure smartphone and tablet users from Tencent Holdings Ltd.
Alibaba, China’s largest e-commerce company, agreed to buy an 18 percent stake in Sina Corp.’s Weibo unit, with an option to increase its holding in the message service to 30 percent, according to a statement released yesterday. The companies also agreed to cooperate on online payments and marketing.