China's Alibaba Complains of Blackmail by Media Organisation

Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba, which is preparing for its US initial public offering (IPO), on Friday claimed it was being blackmailed by a media organisation which runs a business magazine.

The company said it has approached police after the media outlet, which remains unnamed, asked the e-commerce giant to pay $300,000 for a research report against it to be dropped.

The research is allegedly based on negative reports from a domestic weekly and comments by individuals online, Alibaba said in a statement.

Police in Hangzhou city, where the company is based, registered a case on Monday, state-run Xinhua news agency reported.

The company is currently in the quiet period before its much-anticipated IPO and go public on the New York Stock Exchange. The IPO has been postponed until September, according to the latest reports.

Alibaba welcomes supervision from the mass media, but it will not tolerate acts that go beyond the legal boundaries, said Jack Ma, founder and chairman of the company.

The statement did not disclose the media institution's name, but insiders speculated it referred to a Huangzhou-based business magazine.