Alibaba seeks to reassure investors as Beijing's business crackdown grows
CNN
Alibaba sought to reassure investors by unveiling a 50% increase in its share repurchase plans Tuesday while reporting somewhat mixed results.
The Chinese online shopping behemoth has been slammed in recent months by Beijing's widening crackdown on private business, stoking concerns about its future. On Tuesday, it reported a drop in earnings despite an increase in sales. Net income of 45.1 billion yuan, or about $7 billion, slipped from 47.6 billion yuan it earned a year earlier. But its adjusted earnings were a bit better than recently lowered estimates from analysts. Alibaba's revenue of 205.7 billion yen, or about $32 billion, while up 34% from a year ago, fell a bit short of expectations. Analysts surveyed by Refinitiv had forecast revenue would reach 209 billion yuan.The US began pulling military equipment and additional personnel out of Niger on Friday after waiting months for the ruling military junta to approve US military flights into the country, two sources familiar with the matter said Saturday, ahead of a September 15 withdrawal deadline agreed to by the two countries.
The judge who oversaw Donald Trump’s criminal hush money trial in New York on Friday informed the former president’s defense team and prosecutors with the Manhattan district attorney’s office that a comment was posted on the New York State Unified Court Systems’ public Facebook page last week by a poster who claimed to be a cousin of a juror, saying that Trump would be convicted.