Jerry Yang Archives ~ Business China : news for investors in China

E-COMMERCE: Alibaba Gets Alter Ego with Yahoo-Turned-Altaba

By newsdoug on January 11, 2017

Bottom line: Alibaba will closely watch the performance of the newly minted Altaba over the next 1-2 years, and could make a privatization bid with Softbank if it feels the company is undermining its own stock.

Yahoo (Nasdaq: YHOO) co-founder Jerry Yang never would have dreamed a decade ago that the ground-breaking search engine he co-founded might someday morph into a Chinese e-commerce company called Alibaba (NYSE: BABA). But that’s pretty much what has just happened, with official word from Yang’s former baby that it will change its name to Altaba following the pending sale of its core Internet business. Read Full Post…

INTERNET: Baidu Talks De-Listing, Qihoo Chief Naps at Internet Pow-wow

By newsdoug on December 23, 2015

Bottom line: China’s global Internet conference this week was mostly empty pageantry, but it did reveal that Baidu might like to privatize from New York one day, and attracted a handful of China-friendly global executives.

Wuzhen Internet pow-wow mostly empty talk

China’s big Internet pow-wow this week in the picturesque town of Wuzhen hasn’t produced much news despite its big aspirations, reflecting Beijing’s tight control over cyberspace and companies that do business there. But the globally-minded event did produce at least one interesting tidbit on the recent privatization wave by US-listed Chinese companies, and also an entertaining photo of 2 top executives that went viral online.

The news item came from Robin Li, founder of leading Chinese search engine Baidu (Nasdaq: BIDU), who hinted that he hopes to someday join the recent wave of Chinese companies now privatizing from New York due to undervaluation. The photo that went viral captured a humorous moment involving a catnap during the conference by Zhou Hongyi, the controversial and more often outspoken CEO of security software specialist Qihoo 360 (NYSE: QIHU). Read Full Post…

INTERNET: Alibaba Sticks with Yahoo, Didi Kuaidi

By newsdoug on December 10, 2015

Bottom line: Yahoo’s reversal of its earlier decision to spin off its 15 percent of Alibaba into a separate company will have no impact on Alibaba, which is indicating separately that it will hold onto its own big stake in Uber China rival Didi Kuaidi.

A couple of news items are showing that the long and complex relationship between Internet search pioneer Yahoo (Nasdaq: YHOO) and Chinese e-commerce juggernaut Alibaba (NYSE: BABA) is far from over, and how the companies may remain hopelessly entangled for a while to come. The first item made global headlines, and has Yahoo reversing its earlier decision to spin off its 15 percent of Alibaba into a separate company. The second item has Yahoo founder Jerry Yang getting named as a top adviser to Didi Kuaidi, China’s main rival to US private car services giant Uber, which counts Alibaba as one of its major stakeholders.

At the heart of this complex dance is a personal relationship between Alibaba founder Jack Ma and Yahoo’s Yang. The pair struck up a friendship more than a decade ago, and ultimately formed a major alliance that saw Yahoo purchase 40 percent of Alibaba for about $1 billion. Yahoo later sold down that stake, netting billions of dollars in profits. But it still holds 15 percent of Alibaba, which is currently worth about $30 billion. Read Full Post…

INTERNET: Yahoo-Alibaba Dance Set For New Phase?

By newsdoug on January 26, 2015

Bottom line: Alibaba could make a bid to buy Yahoo as part of a broader overhaul of the relationship between these 2 Internet companies, but personal and other issues could ultimately hamper such a deal.

Yahoo to sell remaining Alibaba stake?

Media have been focused these last 2 days on reports of a new mega purchase by Alibaba (NYSE: BABA) in the insurance space, but another report centers on a far more intriguing possible deal involving the e-commerce giant’s long relationship with faded US search giant Yahoo (Nasdaq: YHOO). That particular relationship has undergone huge changes since the pair first formed their partnership a decade ago, and could easily be the subject of a book. In the latest chapter to that story, a new report is speculating that Alibaba could make a bid for Yahoo in the next year as it seeks to go global following its blockbuster IPO in 2014. Read Full Post…

Alibaba’s Ma Eyes New Partner In Apple’s Cook

By newsdoug on October 29, 2014

Alibaba, Apple weigh electronic wallet tie-up

The headlines are buzzing today with news about newly listed Alibaba (NYSE: BABA), led by word that the e-commerce giant may explore an electronic payments tie-up with global gadget leader Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL). I’ll be quite frank and say that such a tie-up would seem destined for disaster, based on the previous experience between Alibaba and Yahoo (Nasdaq: YHOO), its only other major partner in a similar past tie-up.

Meantime, Alibaba has also announced a spin-off of its fledgling online travel business, posing the interesting possibility of some major acquisitions as it tries to quickly expand the unit and also presenting a challenge to sector leaders Ctrip (Nasdaq: CTRP) and Qunar (Nasdaq: QUNR). Lastly there’s the largely technical news bit that Alibaba’s stock broke through the $100 mark for the first time in the latest trading session, putting it nearly 50 percent above its IPO price, as investors eagerly await the company’s maiden earnings report set for next Tuesday. (earnings calendar) Read Full Post…

Yang Departure Cuts Final Yahoo-Alibaba Ties 雅虎即将与阿里撇清关系

By newsdoug on January 18, 2012

Yahoo, Alibaba prepare to untie the knot If Yahoo (Nasdaq: YHOO) was looking for a way to tell the world that its troubled relationship with Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Group was nearing an end, then the just-announced resignation of Yahoo co-founder Jerry Yang from all his posts at both companies looks like the perfect and very appropriate signal. Yang’s resignation means he will relinquish his positions as a director on the boards of both Yahoo and Alibaba, marking a quiet end to a stormy chapter in both companies’ history. (English article) Yang and Alibaba founder Jack Ma made headlines in 2005 when they announced that Yahoo would buy 40 percent of Alibaba for $1 billion to create a potent partnership that would combine Alibaba’s expertise in e-commerce with Yahoo’s in online search. But it soon became clear that Jack Ma was more interested in Yahoo’s money than anything Yang or his company had to offer in terms of advice — a reality that was fine with both sides as Yang focused on trying to rebuild Yahoo’s core US-focused business as it rapidly lost share to a more nimble Google (Nasdaq: GOOG). All that changed when Yang resigned as Yahoo CEO and yielded the job to Carol Bartz, an executive whose aggressive style clashed with Ma’s own similar style and led to a prolonged period of tense relations between the 2 companies. Through all of that, Yang, who remained as a non-executive board member of Yahoo, continued to maintain personal ties with Alibaba, getting invitations and often attending the Chinese company’s Alifest big annual conference in its hometown of Hangzhou. Yang’s resignation from both the Alibaba and Yahoo boards comes just 2 weeks after Yahoo named Scott Thompson as its new CEO, filling the position that has been vacant since Bartz was fired last year. I suspect the departure was a condition when Thompson agreed to take the job, aimed at giving him a clear mandate to run the company with a fresh start. Alibaba and its bankers have been sending a nonstop series of signals to the market that they have raised enough money to buy out Yahoo’s 40 percent Alibaba stake, and Yang’s departure should remove the final reminder of the forces behind the original tie-up that can let this much-needed divorce finally go forward. When that happens, which could be in the next 2 months, I wouldn’t be at all surprised to see Yang suddenly appear in Alibaba, either as an investor or perhaps even an executive in one of the company’s units.

Bottom line: Jerry Yang’s resignation from the boards of Yahoo and Alibaba signal a pending divorce of the 2 companies, which could see Yang ultimately end up as an investor or executive at Alibaba.