Yahoo's US$1b 'open sesame' for Alibaba
By Liu Baijia (China Daily)
Updated: 2005-08-12 05:52

US Internet giant Yahoo yesterday ended six years of independent operations in China - a period punctuated with frequent personnel changes, slow reaction to localization and challenges in the Chinese Internet market - and joined forces with Chinese e-commerce company Alibaba.com.

Alibaba.com Chairman and CEO Jack Ma (centre) and Yahoo Inc COO Daniel Rosensweig (right) smile amidst confetti after the Alibaba-Yahoo joint news conference in Beijing yesterday. [newsphoto]

The US company has announced it will transfer all operations in the country to Alibaba.com, as well as paying US$1 billion for a 40-per-cent stake in Alibaba - valuing the new entity at US$4 billion.

"This is the best approach for us in the Chinese market," Daniel Rosensweig, Yahoo's chief operating officer, said at a press conference in Beijing yesterday.

Yahoo would adopt a co-operation model, he said, which has proved successful in Japan, a market where the company does not directly run an operation.

According to the agreement, Yahoo will inject all its assets in China - an Internet portal, e-mail services, instant messaging, Internet search services, and its keyword search service 3721 - into Alibaba.

In return, Yahoo will own 40 per cent of the shares and 35 per cent of the voting rights in Alibaba, thus becoming the biggest strategic investor in the firm.

Alibaba, based in Hangzhou, a city two-hour's ride south of Shanghai, claims its site Alibaba.com is the world's biggest business-to-business e-commerce website. The company also says its online bidding website, Taobao.com, has surpassed eBay in China and become the domestic market's No 1 auction site.

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