Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba on Tuesday announced that it has bought back billions of dollars worth of stock from Yahoo! in a step toward independence from the US Internet pioneer.

Alibaba Group Holding Limited said it has completed an initial repurchase of shares from Yahoo! and "restructured its relationship with the Silicon Valley company" in transactions valued at approximately US$7.6 billion.

"The completion of the first stage of the Alibaba share repurchase represents a significant milestone for both Alibaba and Yahoo!," the California company's chief executive Marissa Mayer said in a release.

"The execution of the deal was excellent."

In May, the companies revealed that more than a year of negotiations had resulted in a deal for Yahoo! to sell back its stake in Alibaba.

The transaction will be carried out in stages, with the first step calling for a repurchase by Alibaba of up to one-half of Yahoo!'s stake, or approximately 20 percent of Alibaba's total shares.

Yahoo! said that it received US$6.3 billion in cash and US$800 million in Alibaba preferred stock for half of its 40 per cent stake in the Chinese online commerce colossus.

Alibaba paid Yahoo! an additional $550 million for a "technology and intellectual property" license agreement.

Yahoo! reported that net cash proceeds after taxes and fees totaled US$4.3 billion, US$3.65 billion of which will be "returned to shareholders" primarily in the form of stock repurchases.

"I look forward to continued partnership with (Alibaba chief) Jack Ma and his team," Mayer said.

channelnewsasia.com