Feb 27, 2018

Report: Alibaba in talks to buy Chinese food delivery giant

Source: Getty Images

Alibaba is in talks to acquire the 60% stake it does not already own in Chinese food ordering and delivery platform Ele.me, according to the FT. The deal could value Ele.me at upwards of $9.5 billion, while sellers would include Baidu, Horizon Ventures and Sequoia Capital China.

Why it matters: Because this would provide Alibaba with its first in-house delivery workers and logistics network, things that global rival Amazon already has and is learning from.

More from the FT:

Should the deal go through, Alibaba would become one of the country’s largest players in food delivery, rivaled only by online-to-offline services platform Meituan Dianping, which is backed by Alibaba’s competitor, Tencent. China’s food delivery market was valued at $32.5 billion in 2017, according to the China Cuisine Association, an industry group.

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Illustration: Sarah Grillo/Axios

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The big picture: Facebook is trying to be more like a government — committing to impartiality and protecting free speech and building mechanisms for arbitration. Twitter, pushed by Trump's inflammatory messages, is opting to more aggressively enforce conduct rules on its private property, like a mall owner enforcing rules inside the gates.

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Illustration: Sarah Grillo/Axios

Global: Total confirmed cases as of 1 p.m. ET: 5,851,494 — Total deaths: 362,238 — Total recoveries — 2,445,181 — Map.
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Obama on George Floyd's death: "This shouldn't be 'normal'"

Photo: Getty Images/Getty Images for EIF & XQ

Former President Obama said in a statement Friday that the death of George Floyd, an unarmed black man who was killed by a white Minneapolis police officer, "shouldn't be 'normal' in 2020 America."

What he's saying: "[W]e have to remember that for millions of Americans being treated differently on account of race is tragically, painfully, maddeningly 'normal' — whether it’s while dealing with the health care system, or interacting with the criminal justice system, or jogging down the street, or watching birds in a park."

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