[crazytony]

Due to Chinese law not allowing foreign investment in several sectors (including online) Softbank and Yahoo do not own any of Alibaba. They own a percentage of a Cayman Islands holding firm that have contract(s) with Alibaba that stipulate voting and profit sharing. The Chinese Government could invalidate these contracts at any time should they decide the contracts breach the letter or spirit of their laws.

[rahimnathwani]

That's an over-simplification. Less than 8% of the group's assets are held by the Variable Interest Entity (VIE) which has the ICP licence:

http://www.chinaaccountingblog.com/weblog/alibaba-sets-the-v...

The remaining assets are presumably owned by companies whose beneficial owners are the shareholders in the Cayman Islands company.