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Yahoo owns 15% of Alibaba, making them a major shareholder. What do they say about their assets being used to limit a free press and spread Chinese government p
by hackuser 11y ago
Yahoo owns 15% of Alibaba, making them a major shareholder. What do they say about their assets being used to limit a free press and spread Chinese government propaganda?
From the NY Times:[1]
The Alibaba Group, the Chinese Internet giant, is making an ambitious play to reshape media coverage of its home country, taking aim at what company executives call the “negative” portrayal of China in the Western media.
As the backbone of this effort, Alibaba agreed on Friday to buy the media assets of the SCMP Group, including one of Hong Kong’s most influential English language daily newspapers, The South China Morning Post. The company is acquiring an award-winning newspaper that for decades has reported aggressively on subjects that China’s state-run media outlets are forbidden to cover, like political scandals and human-rights cases.
Alibaba said the deal was fueled by a desire to improve China’s image and offer an alternative to the biased lens of Western news media outlets. While Alibaba said the Chinese government had no role in its deal to buy the Hong Kong newspaper, the company’s position aligns closely with that of the Communist Party, which has grown increasingly critical of the way Western news organizations cover China.
Of course, the South China Morning Post isn't 'Western' at all. Apparently it's Chinese media they are really concerned with.
[1] http://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/12/business/dealbook/alibaba-scmp-south-china-morning-post.html http://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/12/business/dealbook/alibaba-...
- deleted 11y ago[deleted]
- thaumasiotes 11y ago> Yahoo owns 15% of Alibaba, making them a major shareholder. I saw a saying somewhere that said if you owe the bank five hundred thousand dollars, the bank owns you. If you owe the bank five hundred million dollars, you own the bank. Similarly, Alibaba's value is so much absurdly higher than Yahoo's that the 15% ownership stake is a burden to Yahoo-as-a-business. People have been writing for a while about how it would be immediately profitable for Alibaba to buy Yahoo outright in an all-stock deal, as it would take fewer shares of Alibaba to buy all of Yahoo (Alibaba holdings included) than Yahoo currently owns. http://www.bloombergview.com/articles/2015-12-02/yahoo-is-looking-for-a-new-way-around-alibaba-taxes http://www.bloombergview.com/articles/2015-12-02/yahoo-is-lo... So, long story short, I can't see why Alibaba would care one way or the other what Yahoo thinks.