Yahoo made a $1b investment on Alibaba early on, and Alibaba was growing a lot, investors couldn't directly buy Alibaba, so they bought Yahoo hoping to eventual

Yahoo made a $1b investment on Alibaba early on, and Alibaba was growing a lot, investors couldn't directly buy Alibaba, so they bought Yahoo hoping to eventually cash in. Yahoo was valued at $44b at one time, and the $1b it put in Alibaba was valued at $40b. So 90% of Yahoo was the Alibaba investment. There was a whole spin off core business to separate it from the investment part drama, years and years of distraction and investors and board people who wanted their ~40x instead.