Alibaba’s Latest Yahoo Spat Masks Tepid Results 阿里巴巴与雅虎打口水仗是场烟幕弹？

By newsdoug on May 15, 2011

How convenient for Alibaba Group that the latest blow-up in its endless feud with controlling stakeholder Yahoo (Nasdaq: YHOO) comes as China’s sputtering e-commerce giant has just released quarterly results that are far from mind-blowing. (Results announcement) But first things first, and let’s discuss this latest spat with Yahoo. Believe it or not, I actually believe Alibaba this time when it says it quietly moved its lucrative Alipay electronic payments service into a separate company beyond its direct control due to upcoming Chinese regulations that forbid foreign ownership of electronic payment processors. (A Alibaba's latest smokescreen for poor results libaba statement) In fact, Chinese media are reporting that other e-payment companies are also quietly cutting their ties to foreign investors for the same reason. (English article) But back to Aliababa. While I find Alibaba’s move to be credibly motivated, what I find more disingenuous is the fact it made the move without consulting or even informing Yahoo, which, after all, owns 40 percent of Alibaba. Meantime, Alibaba’s main listed unit, Alibaba.com (HKEx: 1688) in the midst of all this has quietly posted results that are far from stellar, with just 3 percent revenue growth quarter on quarter and 10 percent profit gains, following a scandal at the company earlier this year over fake suppliers on its network designed to boost numbers. Does all this brouhaha over the Yahoo spat, even if it wasn’t engineered deliberately, look just a little bit like a smoke screen to hide the bad numbers?

Bottom line: Alibaba’s latest very public spat with Yahoo is a coincidental, but very conveniently timed, smoke screen masking the deteriorating performance for scandal-plagued Alibaba.com.

中国电子商务巨擘阿里巴巴又与其控股股东雅虎<YHOO.O>打起了嘴仗，其实前者刚刚公布了季度财报——业绩远称不上令人兴奋。但让我们先讨论一下最近发生的这场争执吧。信不信由你，实际上我倒相信阿里巴巴这次的表态：即它之所以悄悄将支付宝所有权转移给另一家公司，是因担心不久中国监管部门将禁止外国公司控股电子支付平台。中国媒体还报导过，其他电子支付公司也因同样原因在悄悄切断与外国投资者的联系。但让我觉得阿里巴巴不那麽真诚的一个事实是，阿里巴巴并未事先徵询雅虎意见甚或通知雅虎，毕竟後者持有阿里巴巴40%的股权。与此同时，阿里巴巴的主要上市公司Alibaba.com<1688.HK>悄悄公布了财报，其季度营收较上季只增长了3%，盈利增长 10%，这些数字远称不上令人印象深刻。今年早些时候，该公司还曾传出为推高业绩而制造虚假供应商的丑闻。那麽现在看来，阿里巴巴如此大张旗鼓地与雅虎展开论战，即便并非处心积虑，也是不是有点为了掩饰财报不佳而放出的烟雾弹呢？

一句话：阿里巴巴最近与雅虎大张旗鼓的争执，也许是一场虽属偶然但时机恰到好处的烟幕弹，旨在掩饰Alibaba.com糟糕的财报。