Yahoo! said its investment would make it the biggest shareholder in Alibaba, which has 2300 employees and is based in the eastern Chinese city of Hangzhou, southwest of Shanghai. Yahoo will have 35 per cent voting rights. The new entity will have a four-member board led by Ma as chairman, with a second seat held by Alibaba and the others held by Yahoo! co-founder Jerry Yang and a representative of Softbank, the Japanese firm that is a big Yahoo! shareholder.