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Alibaba spent $750m of Yahoo! cash
(Chinadaily.com.cn)
Updated: 2006-03-22 11:10 Ma said Alibaba was still in a very healthy cash position. He added that
Alibaba was profitable and AliPay and China Page were "very profitable".
He said that the company retained US$250 million from Yahoo's injection.
Alibaba chief
executive Jack Ma (3rd R) and Yahoo chief operating officer Daniel
Rosensweig (2nd R) gesture during a press conference in Beijing,
August 11, 2005. Yahoo Inc. will pay $1 billion for 40 percent of Chinese
Web auctioneer Alibaba.com, taking on eBay and search firm Baidu.com as it
extends its reach in the world's second-biggest Internet market. Photo in
the background shows Jerry Yang, co-founder of Yahoo and Jack
Ma on the Great
Wall. [newsphoto]
| It had also
pooled US$84 million before the Yahoo! acquisition.
He said the company was looking at further investments, both in talent and in
other business areas, without giving details, although he said he would not be
investing in online gaming.
He also noted that Yahoo! had fallen further behind Baidu.com and Google in
the Chinese search market.
According to market research firm iResearch, Baidu held a 46.5 percent share
of China's search engine market in 2005, compared with 36.29 in 2004.
Google held a 26.92 percent share, up from 22.72 percent in 2004.
Yahoo!'s share fell to 15.6 percent from 21.22 percent a year earlier.
Ma said that the company would be focused primarily on e-commerce for
the next two to three years, although it would continue to develop Yahoo! as its
search product.
Related story: Cash-rich Alibaba not listing in near
future
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