Alibaba set on growth path after divesting bricks-and-mortar retailing assets: analysts
Alibaba Group Holding surprised investors a few years ago when the e-commerce giant's employee headcount surged to 252,084 at the end of December 2020, more than double its 122,399 total in the previous quarter. The nearly 130,000 increase in staff primarily came from consolidating the operations of Sun Art Retail Group, China's largest hypermarket operator, which Alibaba took control of in a US$3.6 billion deal in October that year. The enlarged payroll size signified the price Alibaba was will