Alibaba's Ma 'Very Interested' in Acquiring Yahoo! (YHOO); Shares Pop
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Shares of Yahoo! (Nasdaq: YHOO) are trading in positive territory Monday morning following reports over the weekend it might be the apple of a strategic buyer's eye.
Speaking at a Stanford University event, Alibaba Group CEO Jack Ma said his company is "very interested" in Yahoo! Ma also noted Alibaba is as important to Yahoo! as Yahoo! is important to Alibaba. When asked whether Ma would buy Yahoo!, he said there are "so many people interested," and Alibaba is "also talking to them."
Ma said talks have gotten thorny over "political" issues.
One analyst comments Ma's desire to acquire Yahoo! stems more from his wanting to control the direction of Alibaba rather than expand its footprint with Yahoo! Aside from it's main site, Alibaba operates the e-commerce site Taobao.com as well.
Alibaba sold a 40 percent stake to Yahoo! in 2005 for $1 billion. That position is worth about $11.45 per share to Yahoo! now, Bloomberg notes. Following a share sale last month, Alibaba has been valued at about $32 billion, making Yahoo!'s stake worth about $12.8 billion.
In a reversal of fortune, Yahoo! lost market share to rival Google (Nasdaq: GOOG) since acquiring the stake in Alibaba, while China's user base has increased five-fold to about 500 million, meaning more business for Alibaba and its units.
Yahoo! is currently trading with a market cap of $17 billion.
Shares of Yahoo! are up 5.9 percent Monday morning
Speaking at a Stanford University event, Alibaba Group CEO Jack Ma said his company is "very interested" in Yahoo! Ma also noted Alibaba is as important to Yahoo! as Yahoo! is important to Alibaba. When asked whether Ma would buy Yahoo!, he said there are "so many people interested," and Alibaba is "also talking to them."
Ma said talks have gotten thorny over "political" issues.
One analyst comments Ma's desire to acquire Yahoo! stems more from his wanting to control the direction of Alibaba rather than expand its footprint with Yahoo! Aside from it's main site, Alibaba operates the e-commerce site Taobao.com as well.
Alibaba sold a 40 percent stake to Yahoo! in 2005 for $1 billion. That position is worth about $11.45 per share to Yahoo! now, Bloomberg notes. Following a share sale last month, Alibaba has been valued at about $32 billion, making Yahoo!'s stake worth about $12.8 billion.
In a reversal of fortune, Yahoo! lost market share to rival Google (Nasdaq: GOOG) since acquiring the stake in Alibaba, while China's user base has increased five-fold to about 500 million, meaning more business for Alibaba and its units.
Yahoo! is currently trading with a market cap of $17 billion.
Shares of Yahoo! are up 5.9 percent Monday morning
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