Softbank to talk with Alibaba group over Alipay
Posted by Aliuser on Jun 21, 2011 in Alibaba Hong Kong

Softbank CEO and an Alibaba board member Masayoshi Son told the press that an agreement over ownership of China’s leading online payment provider Alipay will be reached between Alibaba Group and Softbank.
Softbank Masayoshi-son
Softbank Masayoshi-son
“We (Alibaba and Softbank) are good partners,” Son told Reuters on a sideline of a business meeting in Seoul, adding he expected to reach an agreement on Alipay “soon.”
Alibaba Group founder and chairman Jack Ma restructured Alipay without board approval recently so that 100 percent of its outstanding shares would be held by a Chinese domestic company ,which is majority owned by Alibaba Group founder and CEO Jack Ma. Mr Ma said the move was to fulfill China financial policy.
Yahoo! which owns 43 percent of Alibaba, was upset by the move as the US-based internet company claimed they were kept in the dark during the take-over process. Alipay acquired “Business Payment License” from People’s Bank of China after the transfer.
Softbank Corp itself has a 33% stake in Alibaba Group.
Alibaba Group earlier also announced a restructure plan for Taobao.com
Taobao (淘寶) will be split into three major components namely its product search engine, eTao(一淘), its business to consumer website, Taobao Mall, and its consumer to consumer (C2C) website, Taobao.com, effective from Thursday.