Jack Ma Purchases Ali Baba Shares worth $50 Million in Q4

Alibaba co-founder Jack Ma and Chairman Joe Tsai purchased millions of shares in the Chinese e-commerce behemoth in the fourth quarter, the New York Times reported on January 23, sending the company's US-listed shares up approximately 7%. According to the report, Ma purchased US$50 million in Hong Kong-traded stock, citing a person familiar with the situation.

Tsai also purchased approximately US$151 million in Alibaba's US-traded shares during the quarter as part of his Blue Pool Management family investment. The Jack Ma Foundation, which handles media inquiries for the Chinese billionaire, did not immediately respond to Reuters' request for comment.

Alibaba had said in November the family trust of Ma, who stepped down as executive chairman of Alibaba in 2019, was set to sell 10 million American Depository Shares of Alibaba Group Holdings for about US$871 million. Alibaba is in the middle of an overhaul. It scrapped plans to spin off its cloud business in November, citing uncertainties created by US export curbs on tech used in artificial intelligence applications.

The spinoff was part of the company's plan to split its business into six main units covering e-commerce, media and the cloud. For long a dominant player in China's online shopping market, Alibaba has been facing competition from PDD Holdings' Pinduoduo.