Ant Group cut down to size in latest blow for Jack Ma's business empire
CNN
Jack Ma's business empire just suffered a one-two punch as China continues to tighten the screws on its tech champions.
Chinese regulators have ordered Ant Group, which owns the hugely popular Alipay app, to overhaul its operations and become a financial holding company supervised by the central bank. The announcement late on Monday came just days after Ma's online shopping giant Alibaba was hit with a record $2.8 billion antitrust fine. Monday's news, which had been widely anticipated, means that the Alibaba (BABA)-affiliated company will have to follow rules similar to those required of traditional Chinese banks. Ant Group's financial activities will be highly regulated, and it will likely have to follow new rules governing how much cash it keeps in reserve and how rapidly it can grow.