Chinese Alibaba Gains Wealth

Jan 2 (Reuters) - China's Alibaba Group (9988.HK) said on Tuesday it had repurchased a total of 897.9 million of its shares for $9.5 billion during 2023.

The shares were bought in both the U.S. and Hong Kong stock markets, the company said in a filing. The e-commerce giant said the remaining amount the company's Board had authorized for its share repurchase program, which is effective through March 2025, was $11.7 billion.

"Our share repurchase program resulted in a net reduction of 3.3% in our outstanding shares in the last 12 months after accounting for shares issued under our ESOP (employee stock ownership plan)," the company said.

Alibaba had 20 billon outstanding shares as of Dec. 31, compared with 29.7 billion at the end of 2022.

Reverse Aging

Harvard researchers found a “chemical cocktail” that helped reverse aging in mice within a week by rejuvenating old cells within muscles, tissues, and some organs.

Aging and longevity expert David Sinclair, who is a researcher in the department of genetics and codirector of the Paul F. Glenn Center for Biology of Aging Research at Harvard Medical School, announced the findings on Twitter.

The results, published in the journal Aging this month, underscore aging as a process that can be reversed versus something inevitable. It adds to the growing interest in aging medicine, as people spend upwards of $100,000 per year at longevity clinics in the quest for the fountain of youth. CEO Bryan Johnson is known for his $2-million-a-year reverse-aging protocol.

“We’ve previously shown age reversal is possible using gene therapy to turn on embryonic genes,” Sinclair tweeted in a thread with over 1 million engagements. “Now we show it’s possible with chemical cocktails, a step towards affordable whole-body rejuvenation.”

In research over the course of three years, Sinclair and his team at Harvard observed mice taking six “chemical cocktails” that can reverse key hallmarks of aging by rejuvenating senescent or older, deteriorating cells “without erasing cellular identity,” according to the study.  READ MORE...