Microsoft is not just bidding for Yahoo!
If Microsoft gets control of Yahoo, and that seems to be what is expected one way or the other sooner or later, Microsoft will also get a great deal of control of Alibaba in China. Yahoo owns a 39% stake in Alibaba which owns:
1. about 80% of Alibaba.com Ltd., the online trading site that raised $1.5 billion in an initial public offering in October and is now the biggest listed Chinese Internet company with a market capitalization of nearly $13 billion.
2. a consumer auction site,
3. an online-payment and software businesses
4. Yahoo China.
Japan's Softbank Corp owns another 30% of Alibaba, effectively making Microsoft and Softbank partners in Alibaba.
And, what the Chinese government wants to know is just how much hands on will Microsoft be should/when they take over Yahoo in Sunnyvale.
Alibaba has hired advisors to help negotiate expanded management independence should MS take over. Alibaba might soon be saying good-bye to the relative independence it has enjoyed thus far.
Jack Ma of Alibaba says Alibaba management "will always maintain its independence and management control" over the company, regardless of who its shareholders are.
We shall see, we shall see.
