One of these firms is the Chinese owned website Alibaba for which the company paid $1 billion in 2005 and in turn owns approximately 24% of the site's shares. The company is reaping huge returns from the website at the moment as its valuation has skyrocketed in the past three years. Moreover, the Chinese company is expected to add a tremendous value to Yahoo's balance sheet depending upon its momentum leading up to its IPO. The company recently announced amendments to its agreement with Alibaba and will now keep a bigger than expected chunk of its stake in the Chinese e-commerce company. Under the new agreement Yahoo now must sell 140 million Alibaba shares in the IPO, lower than 208 million required earlier. This is positive for Yahoo as it allows the company to hold on to its interest longer, at a minimum delaying taxes, and allows it to hold a bigger chunk of a company it believes will continue to appreciate in