Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Group Holding Limited has raised its share buyback program to $25 billion from $15 billion. The company had purchased 56.2 million American depositary shares for about $9.2 billion, as of March 18. Alibaba also appointed Weijian Shan, executive chairman of investment group PAG, as an independent director. Alibaba shares closed 4.4% lower in Monday’s regular trading session at $103.59 and further lost 0.8% in the after-hours session to $102.72. Alibaba is now planning to slash 30% of its workforce after its MMC business division decided to lay off 20% of employees. They are down 12.8 percent so far this year. . . .
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