What's Going On With Alibaba Stock Wednesday?

Alibaba Group Holding Ltd BABA is undergoing significant changes, including replacing Trudy Dai, a founding partner, with CEO Eddie Wu as the head of its core Chinese e-commerce platforms, Tmall and Taobao. 

Dai will now focus on creating a new entity to manage Alibaba's global investment assets. 

This move is part of Alibaba's strategy to handle non-core businesses, enhancing overall competitiveness and flexibility, Bloomberg reports.

The changes come as Alibaba seeks to recover from recent challenges, including regulatory scrutiny, market dominance erosion, and the rise of rivals like PDD Holdings Inc PDD and ByteDance Ltd. 

Wu, who recently took over Alibaba, aims to cultivate new management to lead the company long-term and streamline operations by potentially selling less essential businesses.

Several analysts rerated the stock, citing slower-than-expected turnaround and uncertainty caused by its cloud business spinoff withdrawal.

Earlier in the year, Alibaba had considered splitting into six divisions but later reversed this decision and removed former CEO Daniel Zhang.

Alibaba is now focusing on regaining its position in cloud and e-commerce, with plans to review and potentially divest some investment assets under the new holding company supervised by Joseph Tsai.

Meanwhile, A Japanese company, BWB Inc, has filed lawsuits against Alibaba in Japan, the U.S., and South Korea, alleging patent infringement related to cross-border e-commerce. 

BWB, specializing in customs clearance and logistics patents, seeks court injunctions or damages. 

The company's patented system enables merchants to pre-register goods for customs with a predetermined tax rate, allowing customers to pay duties at purchase for assured delivery, Bloomberg reports.

In Japan, BWB has filed an injunction against Alibaba and its logistics arm, Cainiao, along with Tmall operator Taobao China Holding Ltd. 

Alibaba has denied these patent infringement claims and requested the Tokyo court to dismiss them. 

The stock has lost over 18% year-to-date, while PDD has gained 78%

Price Action: BABA shares traded higher by 0.27% at $75.60 premarket on the last check Wednesday.

Disclaimer: This content was partially produced with the help of AI tools and was reviewed and published by Benzinga editors.

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