Jack Ma , chairman and chief executive officer of Alibaba Group, China's largest e-commerce company, is reportedly joining SoftBank Corporation's board of directors, the Beijing Times reported yesterday, citing a company statement.

The news followed an earlier report that Alibaba is seeking a Hong Kong or NASDAQ IPO for its core business-to-business (B2B) unit. Alibaba will raise $700 million to $1 billion, reports said.

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