Beijing: Alibaba Group Holding Ltd, China's biggest electronic commerce company, said it's "moved on" from talks to buy back shares held by Yahoo! Inc, after the two sides failed to reach agreement earlier this year.
"We have no intention of raising this issue again," Alibaba spokesman John Spelich said. Talks between the Chinese company and Yahoo about the shares ended in June, he said.
Yahoo's 39 per cent stake in Alibaba is worth $11 billion, according to estimates by Susquehanna Financial Group analyst last week.
Yahoo founder Jerry Yang was first approached about nine months ago to sell the holding, before Alibaba filed a formal proposal in May, Spelich said.
Alibaba Group Chief Financial Officer Joseph Tsai held at least two meetings with Tim Morse, his counterpart at Yahoo, about the holding in Alibaba, according to Spelich. Alibaba's formal proposal in May involved an offer to buy part of the stake held by Yahoo, Spelich said. Yahoo countered with a "different proposal" in June that Alibaba found unjustifiable, he said.
Yahoo spokeswoman May Petry didn't immediately reply to an e-mail to confirm details of the negotiations.
The Sunnyvale, California-based company said in a statement Friday that it won't comment on "any private discussions we may or may not have with our strategic partners."
