Saturday, February 18, 2012

Yahoo-Alibaba deal stalls

News this week: The US$17 billion asset swap deal involving Alibaba Group and Yahoo Inc. has reportedly stalled as a result of a disagreement on the valuation of Alibaba’s consumer e-commerce platform Taobao. Reuters reports that a negotiation team that includes Yahoo’s chief financial officer, Tim Morse, was in Hong Kong for discussions but could not reach an agreement on the valuation as Yahoo feels Taobao has performed well since the deal was first proposed.

Separately, Third Point LLC, a U.S. hedge fund with a large stake in Yahoo, is now looking to claim four seats on Yahoo’s board of directors in a regulatory filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

In an update of last week’s reports of the Alibaba Group’s plan to privatise its Hong Kong-listed B2B subsidiary, Alibaba.com, the company is reportedly looking to offer HK$13.50 for each outstanding share – approximately US$2.3 billion in total or near the price of its initial public offering in 2007.

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1 comment:

Blg irony said...

I’ve always wondered why Thailand doesn’t have a decent English style B2B site. There are plenty of Thai sites for the domestic market but nothing that really spans to an international audience. Thai products always seem to be sought after but sellers have to go to places such as Alibaba to post their wares.
company registration Thailand can be a bit of a nightmare though with not a lot of incentive for investors to set up shop over here. There has also been the trouble with the recent flooding that happened last year which has dented investor sentiment.

The potential from Thai food products alone is great and the county also has the advantage of being a top destination on foreign traveler’s minds when they think about coming to Asia. Unfortunately any kind of wholesale purchase has to be done at the weekend market where there are literally thousands of stalls waiting to sell there products to businesses and individuals alike.