HONG KONG -- China's largest e-commerce company, Alibaba Group Holding, said Thursday that it has agreed to buy a 33% stake in Ant Financial Services Group, a mobile payments affiliate controlled by Alibaba founder Jack Ma Yun.
Under a deal announced the same day as better-than-expected quarterly earnings, Alibaba will buy new shares in the operator of the popular Alipay payment service in exchange for certain intellectual property rights owned by the e-commerce giant. There will be no cash impact on Alibaba following the closing, it said.
