Alibaba's Jack Ma expresses Yahoo interest

Jack Ma, chairman and CEO of Alibaba Group, said he is very interested in buying all ofYahoo Inc. [File photo]



Jack Ma, chairman and CEO of China's Alibaba Group, has said he is "very interested" in buying all of struggling Yahoo Inc.

Alibaba spokesperson John Spelich confirmed that Ma made the remarks during his keynote speech at Stanford University in response to a question from a member of the audience.

"Alibaba is very important to Yahoo, so is Yahoo to Alibaba," said Ma during a Q&A session.

When he was asked which part of Yahoo he was interesting in, Ma responded, "the whole piece of Yahoo", Reuters reported.

After Yahoo fired its CEO Carol Bartz, several U.S. media outlets singled out Ma as the outstanding candidate to succeed Bartz. Yahoo has reportedly also received inquiries from Microsoft, News Corporation and private equity firm Silver Lake Europe LLP.

Alibaba faces a number of obstacles if it proceeds with its planned purchase of Yahoo. One of the main difficulties will be the stringent review process of Alibaba's qualifications by U.S. regulators. Alibaba's operational independence, as well as the privacy concerns of US users of Yahoo email will likely be put under the microscope.


Comments

Kerry said…
Whether or not Jack Ma will be able to purchase Yahoo in its entirety, I just don't know. I don't know enough about the rules and regulations in either China or America. But if he does manage to purchase it, it'll be interesting to see what direction he takes it in. If he'd continue to operate it on a global basis or just in China or just take the technology and use it to improve the existing sites, Alibaba, Taobao etc. Or, and this might be a bit of a tall order but interesting nonetheless, would he try to take Baidu on? There was that quote from him a while ago, something along the lines of wanting to give Baidu sleepless nights. Might be a complete coicidence of course but it'd be an interesting one to watch.

And Ma's certainly not to be underestimated. When you look at what he's already achieved; basically making Alibaba almost synonymous with online wholesale, in general, not just wholesalers in China or wholesalers UK, it makes you wonder what else he might achieve.
November 23, 2011 at 1:31 AM
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