On August 28, Alibaba’s vice president Yan Qiao denied reports that the company plans to acquire its former executive’s startup HHO. Earlier that day, Chinese tech news site Leiphone reported that, driven by Alibaba’s newly appointed CEO Wu Yongming, the Chinese tech giant was in discussion with the cross-border digital e-commerce company. HHO was established by Chen Hang, the founder of Alibaba’s corporate communication platform DingTalk, and the potential acquisition aims to incorporate Chen and his team into Alibaba’s International Digital Commerce Group, according to the report by Leiphone. Chen founded HHO in 2021 after leaving DingTalk. On August 23 this year, He appeared at the DingTalk 2023 Ecological Conference as an entrepreneur and shared his thoughts on the workplace communication tool he founded. The move was seen as a sign of Chen’s return to Alibaba, the report said. [Jiemian, in Chinese; Leiphone, in Chinese]

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