Alibaba breaks itself up in six

Rumours of an impending break-up of Alibaba have been swirling for a while. Chinese regulators had long been leery of its market power over the online economy, where its interests spanned e-commerce, digital payments, cloud-computing, entertainment and much else besides. The Communist authorities dislike the idea of anything, let alone a large private business, outshining the party. And the country’s leaders bristled at the high profile of…