Carol Bartz, Yahoo chief executive, said progress had been made in talks with Alibaba Group over compensation for the spin-off of the Chinese e-commerce company’s online payment processor Alipay.
Shares in the US media group, Alibaba’s biggest shareholder, fell earlier this month on fears that its prime asset in the world’s biggest internet market could be diluted by the loss of the payment business, which was spun off last summer.
Speaking on Wednesday at Yahoo’s annual conference for investors and analysts, Ms Bartz and Yahoo co-founder Jerry Yang said Alibaba’s leaders had agreed that Alipay would continue to be a driving force behind auctions site Taobao, a key Alibaba asset.