alibaba stock rose thursday following a report that technology investment group softbank moved to sell down most of its remaining stake in the company in which it was an early investor it’s yet another sign of a changing of the guard in chinese tech softbank ticker 9984japan has sold about 72 billion worth of alibaba baba shares this year through prepaid forward contracts the financial times reported citing an analysis of regulatory filings the sales will eventually reduce softbank’s stake in alibaba—which stood at around 25 at the beginning of last year—to less than 4 the report said following on from a record 29 billion sale last year