Reports this week suggested the B2B firm is looking for a way out of its ties with the US portal. Yahoo! is Alibaba's dominant shareholder with 39% of the firm's stocks. The remainder is held by Alibaba's chairman Jack Ma and Japan's Softbank.
The move follows the release of the company's 2007 annual report, which states Alibaba's net profit rocketed 340% year on year to Rmb967.8m (US$137m) from Rmb219.9m in 2006. Revenue rose 58.6% to Rmb2.2bn ($312m).
Additionally, there are rumours that Alibaba is looking for investment opportunities in Taiwan. China.org also reported that Alibaba registered with the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers on 13 March, suggesting the website may begin a service providing domain name registration for both companies and individuals.
Alibaba looks for Yahoo! get-out as profits soar
CHINA - Digital commerce firm Alibaba.com is looking to Chinese investors to raise money for a buy-out in the increasingly likely event that principal shareholder Yahoo! is acquired by Microsoft.
