China to reap Alibaba windfall as tightens up on tax

By Michelle Price HONG KONG (Reuters) – China could make billions of dollars from taxing gains made by employees of e-commerce giant Alibaba Group who are free to sell their shares for the first time since its IPO, as the country tightens up its leaky mechanisms for tax collection. On Wednesday, a six-month lock-up period for the recently New York-listed stock expired, allowing insiders who bought 437 million shares prior to the IPO to sell their stock, though 100 million of them are subject to trading restrictions that apply to employees until the company reports results in May

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Alibaba leaning away from plans to invest in India’s Snapdeal: Recode

(Reuters) – Alibaba Group Holdings Ltd may scrap plans to invest in Indian online marketplace Snapdeal, technology website Recode reported, citing a person who was familiar with the matter. Last week, a person informed about the deal had told Reuters that Alibaba was in talks with Snapdeal over a potential cash investment in what could have been the Chinese e-commerce giant's first direct investment in India. Alibaba has held discussions with Snapdeal about a possible investment, but the Chinese company is leaning away from investing in Snapdeal right now, Recode said

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IBM dismisses Forbes report of massive layoffs

(Reuters) – IBM dismissed on Monday a Forbes magazine report claiming the technology firm is preparing to cut about 26 percent of its workforce. A report last Thursday on Forbes' website by pseudonymous Silicon Valley technology gossip columnist Robert Cringely said IBM planned to lay off 26 percent of its global workforce, or as many as 112,000 employees. This equates to several thousand people, a small fraction of what's been reported.” Last week, Chief Financial Officer Martin Schroeter told investors on IBM's fourth-quarter earnings conference call that the company was taking restructuring charges of around $580 million, but he did not specify the number of jobs affected

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