Commerce

Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Group is nearing the close of an investment round designed to reduce Yahoo's equity in its operation, according to a new report.

The company is closing in on its $8 billion investment goal, according to The New York Times, citing sources. The news outlet says the funds are being raised from a host of sources, including hedge funds, mutual funds, and private equity firms. The company will sell preferred and common shares in the transactions, and will borrow about $4 billion, the Times says.

Alibaba and Yahoo entered into an agreement in May that prompted … Read more

eBay has historically been a place for adults to buy and sell goods. But in the coming months, kids might make their way to the service.

Speaking to The Wall Street Journal in an interview published today, eBay's president of global marketplaces, Devin Wenig, said his company is currently working on plans to allow kids under 18 years old to establish accounts and start participating in auctions.

Aware of the obvious privacy and parental implications, Wenig told the Journal that the accounts would be opened only with parental authorization. Wenig said eBay would not allow "a 15-year-old unfettered … Read more

Following a concerted effort to starve Wikileaks of cash by cutting off its sources of funding, the controversial publisher of government and corporate secrets has found a way to once again accept donations via credit cards.

WikiLeaks yesterday announced that it has launched "a new payment gateway" that relies upon the French credit card system Carte Bleue. That system, which works globally with the Visa/MasterCard system that's currently blockading WikiLeaks, is "contractually barred from directly cutting off merchants," according to the organization. A French not-for-profit has taken advantage of that loophole and helped WikiLeaks … Read more

Daily-deals provider Groupon has watched its shares plummet as the weak European market scares investors away.

The company's shares hit an all-time low yesterday of $7.72 before eventually climbing back to end the day at $7.77. According to analysts, who spoke with Reuters recently, Groupon derives a large portion of its revenue from Europe, and continued softness in that market is driving many investors away.

Groupon went public last year at $20 per share. Soon after, the company's shares fell. However, they rebounded earlier this year, making some wonder if the worst was behind it. Since … Read more

Facebook knows who you are, who your friends are, what you like, and where you live. And still the ads suck. Google, on the other hand, gives you ads based only on what you're searching on, and its ads rock.

Can Google's ad performance be brought to Facebook and other social sites? Jeffrey Davitz is trying to do that with his startup, Solariat. The idea, he says, "is to take the Google model of responding to intention and place it in the context of social networks."

Davitz confirms that Facebook can help an advertiser find very … Read more

Uber, a company that lets people request private car service in select cities, is trying to appeal to a less-affluent customers by using non-luxury, hybrid vehicles, according to a new report.

According to Uber, which spoke with The New York Times in a story published yesterday, the hybrid service will kick off in San Francisco and New York on Wednesday. The cars will cost customers 10 percent to 25 percent more than a standard taxi fare between two locations. According to the Times, its premium service typically costs customers between 40 percent and 100 percent more.

Uber is one of … Read more

Institutional Venture Partners has secured $1 billion for a new investment fund.

The company broke the news to TechCrunch earlier today, telling the startup blog that it's calling the fund IVP XIV. The $1 billion raised is the largest fund the company has ever had and brings its total committed capital to $4 billion.

"Essentially it's going to be the same strategy," IVP General Partner Jules Maltz told TechCrunch in an interview. "We're a late-stage firm, we're very focused. We only do tech investing. We don't do China, we don't do … Read more

Amazon's Marketplace has been a boon for third-party merchants looking to sell their products online. But according to a new report, it's not always fun working with the online retail giant.

The Wall Street Journal is reporting today that some retailers in Amazon's Marketplace have witnessed the online company examining which products they sell that are popular, and then offering them itself to the detriment of those merchants.

The Journal spoke with one retailer, Jeff Peterson of Collectible Supplies, who sold as many as 100 Pillow Pets a day. After continued success, he claims Amazon started selling … Read more

Apple yesterday widened the reach of its popular online App Store to an additional 32 markets.

Citing an e-mail sent to registered iOS and Mac developers last night, 9to5Mac said that the new markets are mostly in Africa, Europe, and the Asia-Pacific region.

The App Store expansion follows an announcement by Apple CEO Tim Cook at last week's Worldwide Developers Conference that the online store would branch out to the 32 new markets, adding up to 155 regions across the world.

The 32 new areas: Albania, Benin, Bhutan, Burkina Faso, Cambodia, Cape Verde, Chad, Congo, Fiji, Gambia, Guinea-Bissau, Kyrgyzstan, … Read more