On February 17, Jack Ma, CEO of the Alibaba Group, reiterated
that his company would continue to hold on to the principle of
independent development and analyze any changes positively. Whether
Microsoft succeeds in acquiring Yahoo! or not, the Alibaba Group
will not change its leadership and direction, Ma added. This was
the first time that Alibaba had responded to the prospective
Microsoft-Yahoo! merger.
Yahoo! is Alibaba's biggest shareholder and holds a 39 percent
stake in the latter. The latter also runs assorted e-commercial
business for the former in China. If Microsoft were to succeed in
buying Yahoo! the fate of Alibaba would be of great concern to the
Chinese Internet community. Earlier some people had pointed out
that Microsoft, after merging Yahoo! would first streamline the
assets of the latter in Asia.
For more details, please read the full story in Chinese. (http://www.bbtnews.com.cn/mainland/channel/38685.shtml)
(China.org.cn February 18, 2008)
