George Soros Loads Up On Alibaba.com

Alibaba.com limited said Friday that billionaire financier George Soros invested in the Chinese e-commerce site last year, becoming its third-largest shareholder, according the company's chief executive officer David Wei.

According to the company, Soros invested in Alibaba in the third quarter last year, but Wei did not disclose the size of Soros' holding in the company at its annual meeting in the Chinese city of Shenzhen. Wei also did not confirm the fact that Soros is the third largest investor in Alibaba.

The company's largest shareholder is Alibaba Group, which holds a 73 percent stake, followed by an affiliate of Morgan Stanley (NYSE: MS).

Alibaba Group, which is 40 percent owned by Yahoo Inc. (NASDAQ: YHOO), posted its best results in a year after the market close on Thursday on the strength of paid-customer growth.

According to a report in the Financial Times, Alibaba chief Financial officer Joseph Tsai said that management is interested in and ready to buying back the stake that Yahoo controls in the company.

Yahoo paid $1 billion for its stake in the company in 2005, but the Internet search company's market share in China has since declined. According the the Financial Times, Yahoo is not happy with the way that Alibaba runs its business.

"It indicates that as our business is growing and maturing, management is reaching the stage at which it would like to have back more control of the group," a source at Alibaba told the news source.

Alibaba shares rose 5.3 percent on Friday in Hong Kong, as the Hang Seng index fell 1.4 percent on the say.