SoftBank to sell US$8b stake in Alibaba

San Francisco

WHEN the Alibaba Group was barely a year old in 2000, the fledgling Chinese e-commerce company gained an early believer and investor in Masayoshi Son, the outspoken Japanese telecommunications mogul.

Sixteen years later, Mr Son and his telecommunications company, SoftBank, are finally selling a portion of that stake after its value has mushroomed to billions of dollars.