Alibaba takes hit as growth cools

Chinese online giant Alibaba saw shares take a sharp hit Wednesday as a disappointing quarterly report showed sales growth cooling. Profit in the quarter ended June 30 doubled to $4.97 billion (30.8 billion yuan), mainly due to one-time gains of $3.9 billion from the sale of its stake in film unit Alibaba Pictures. "The added problem for Alibaba is a macro (economic) problem, and specifically the slowdown that is happening in China.