China’s Alibaba mulls US$10 million investment in Sina Sports ahead of news site’s potential listing in Hong Kong

Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba will invest over US$10 million in Sina Sports, after which the Chinese sports news site is expected to be spun off and listed in Hong Kong, local media said this week.

Such a deal would give Asia’s largest internet company a stake in all three of the country’s biggest online sports broadcasters, as it continues a buying spree this year that seems to have no limits in terms of either the group’s coffers or ambition.

Alibaba already has a 7.3 per cent share of LeTV, positing it as LeTV's second-biggest shareholder, and a lesser interest in player PPTV.

PPTV is owned by Chinese electronics retailer Suning, which Alibaba acquired 20 per cent of on Monday.

The group's latest foray into the world of sport comes in the wake of it making a bargain investment in half of a top-flight Chinese football team last year.

It built on that this summer by inking deals with European football powerhouses Real Madrid and Bayern Munich, and NBA star Kobe Bryant, to sell their merchandise on the global version of its e-commerce platform Tmall.

Alibaba's latest investment would make it the major stockholder of Sina Sports, which operates under news portal Sina. Sina also serves as the parent of microblogging site Sina Weibo, the country’s No 2 Twitter-like service.