Alibaba.com’s shareholders approve $2.5B privatization bid for Chinese e-commerce company

HONG KONG – Alibaba.com shareholders have approved a $2.5 billion privatization bid by the Chinese e-commerce firm’s parent.

Shareholders voted in favour Friday of an offer by Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. to buy back the 27 per cent of the company it doesn’t own for 13.50 Hong Kong dollars a share. That’s the same price at which the company went public in 2007.

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The business-to-business website has said that going private will allow it to restructure and make long-term strategic decisions without pressure from shareholders as growth slows after years of rapid expansion.

The approval follows news on Monday that Alibaba Group is buying back roughly half of Yahoo’s stake for $7.1 billion, as CEO Jack Ma tries to gain more control of the company’s destiny.