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Reuters

Alibaba Group has led an investment round of about US$200 million in fledgling US retail website ShopRunner, a source with knowledge of the deal said.
It is one of the largest US investments made by the Chinese e-commerce giant, which is preparing to go public, possibly in the United States.
The source, who requested anonymity, did not say how much of a stake Alibaba owns of ShopRunner, the three-year-old retail startup backed by eBay and run by former Yahoo chief executive Scott Thompson, or how much it paid.
The Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday that eBay sold its 30 per cent stake to Alibaba and the other unspecified investors in this latest round, which valued ShopRunner at about US$600 million.
Alibaba, of which Yahoo owns 24 per cent, declined to comment on the investment.
“The US market in the long run is very interesting to us,” the Journal cited Joe Tsai, Alibaba’s executive vice-chairman and co-founder, as saying in an interview.
“Coming into this market is about learning about American consumers and how the market operates.”
Alibaba is preparing to float shares in an initial public offering that could rival Facebook’s US$16 billion debut last year. Chief executive Jonathan Lu said the company has decided to forego listing in Hong Kong, though it has not committed to debuting on any other stock exchange.
ShopRunner was founded in 2010 and offers free two-day shipping of goods by major brands from Calvin Klein to health products retailer GNC. It hopes to make inroads into the business of much larger rival Amazon.com with features such as free shipping on returns and unlimited two-day shipping.


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Alibaba Group

Alibaba consortium buys US$200 million stake in US retail website

Alibaba plans a stock exchange listing soon, but not in Hong Kong. Photo: Reuters

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