He added that Alibaba is actively seeking a role and intends to be a "driving force in making a deal with Yahoo." In terms of the current status of any ongoing discussions, Ma stressed that, "Alibaba is ready, secondly there are options available and thirdly they [Yahoo] have to make some decisions."

at an event in the US and backed it up with his words in Hong Kong yesterday.

The Alibaba CEO spoke at the in Hong Kong, the first D:Allthings Digital event to be hosted in Asia. The event featured luminaries such as former US Vice President Al Gore, Jerry Yang the co-founder of Yahoo and Chairman of Asus along with a host of other global CEOs.