Tag archive: Jack Ma

China's Alibaba Group has hired the high-power Washington D.C. lobbying firm Duberstein Group Inc., in a sign that the company is planning something that will require significant smoothing and persuasion in the U.S. capital. Industry speculation is centering on Alibaba maneuvering to buy back or reduce Yahoo's stake in its company—or, if that fails, trying to take over Yahoo outright. The Alibaba Group is one of… Read More

The Wall Street Journal reports (subscription required) that Yahoo's board of directors is exploring a plan that would have the struggling Internet company raise cash by selling off its coveted Asian assets in a deal that could total up to $17 or $18 billion. According to the story, the complex plan would have Yahoo selling its entire stake in Yahoo Japan to Japan's Softbank, and selling the a large chunk of its stake in… Read More

Just a month after Yahoo's board of directors summarily kicked CEO Carol Bartz to the curb, rumors are swirling that the once-mighty Internet company is gearing up for a sale. Reports have Yahoo engaging Goldman Sachs and Allen & Company to do due diligence and gather financial information together in preparation, and Reuters has reported Microsoft is already circling—although Bloomberg refutes it. Yahoo has been struggling since… Read More

Internet giant Yahoo and China's Alibaba have, in conjunction with Japan's Softbank, reached an agreement (PDF) in their lingering dispute over the Alipay online payment service. Under the agreement, Alibaba will receive no less than $2 billion and no more than $6 million when (and if) Alipay experiences a “liquidity event” like being sold or going public. The exact amount will be 37.5 percent of Alipay's value at… Read More

Making good on reports earlier this month, Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba plans to launch its own smartphone operating system at an event in Beijing next week, with decided going on sale in August. Apparently dubbed the “Ali-phone,” the device will apparently sport an Nvidia Tegra 2 dual-core processor and will feature a home-grown Alibaba smartphone operating system with integrated access to some of Alibaba's most popular… Read More

Backed up by Yahoo's chief financial officer and co-founder Jerry Yang, Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz assured investors the company will be “appropriately compensated” for Alibaba spinning off online payments outfit Alipay into a separate entity controlled by Alibaba chairman Jack Ma, effectively taking one of the prize jewels away from Yahoo's 43 percent stake in China's Alibaba Group. Yahoo's stock price has… Read More

Internet giant Yahoo ha sold off a 1.14 percent stake in the Chinese Internet portal Alibaba.com for a cool $150 million—but insists Alibaba remains Yahoo's preferred way to tap into China's massive and ever-growing Internet market, and that Yahoo plans to hang on to its remaining 40 percent stake in the operation. Industry watchers are seeing the move in different lights: some note that the sale puts a negative pressure on… Read More

Although the company has so far refused to make any comment on Microsoft's unsolicitied bid to take over Yahoo for $44.6 billion, Chinese Internet portal Alibaba is reportedly positioning itself to retain independent control of its operations should the deal go through. Yahoo owns a 39 percent stake in Alibaba—making it Alibaba's single largest shareholder, ahead of Japan's Softbank—and the company runs… Read More