Alibaba’s Ma In Unusual Defensive Posture 阿里巴巴马云的防守战

By newsdoug on June 15, 2011

Playing defense is hardly the style for Alibaba Group founder and chairman Jack Ma, but he seems to be taking just such a posture in his ongoing dispute with partners Yahoo (Nasdaq: YHOO) and Softbank over the company’s online payments unit. Ma, who rarely holds press conferences these days, took the unusual step of holding one such event this week in his hometown of Hangzhou to try and explain why he secretly moved Alibaba’s fast-rising online payments service, Alipay, out of his group, China’s largest e-commerce company, and into another independent company without first consulting either Yahoo or Softbank. (English article; Chinese article) Playing defense is clearly not Ma’s style, which leads me to believe he realizes that he committed a major mistake — one which caused Yahoo’s shares to drop sharply when the news got out. Ma justified the move saying that China was preparing to issue its first round of licenses for domestic online payment companies, and that Alipay might not qualify for a license due to its foreign ownership. According to the reports, Yahoo and Softbank both thought their stakes in Alibaba wouldn’t prevent Alipay from getting a license, and I’m increasingly convinced that this argument has merit. What Ma hasn’t said in all this is that China is preparing to also license foreign companies to provide domestic online payment services later this summer, so the whole debate over domestic versus foreign control of such companies does seem to be a moot point. In that light, Ma’s defensive posture seems much more understandable and I wouldn’t be surprised to see Alipay return to Alibaba Group as soon as late this year. In the process, Alibaba may also have to pay Yahoo millions of dollars to help it settle a class-action shareholder lawsuit against it related to this mess.

Bottom line: Alibaba could end up reintegrating Alipay to resolve its dispute with Yahoo over the online payments unit, and could be liable for millions to help Yahoo settle a class-action lawsuit.

防守基本不是阿里巴巴创始人兼主席马云的风格，但近日在他与雅虎<YHOO.O>、软银围绕其在线支付部门的分歧中，马云恰恰是采取了防守姿态。如今已很少举行新闻发布会的马云本周在家乡杭州特地举行媒体沟通会，竭力解释他为何将阿里巴巴集团旗下支付宝的股权转移至另外一家公司，而且事先并未咨询合作夥伴雅虎与软银。玩防守显然不是马云的风格，这也让我觉得马云确实意识到自己犯了大错，因消息一出，雅虎股价急挫。马云解释称，中国政府正准备为国内在线支付企业发放首批牌照，而因外资控股问题，阿里巴巴可能无法获得牌照。根据报导，雅虎与软银均认为其在阿里巴巴的股权不会妨碍支付宝获得牌照，我个人越来越觉得这个说法有道理。马云没说的是，中国还准备在今夏晚些时候批准外国公司在华提供在线支付服务。这样说来，马云的防守姿态似乎更可以理解，而如果最快今年底支付宝就重返阿里巴巴集团，我不会感到惊讶。在这个过程中，阿里巴巴可能不得不支付雅虎数百万美元计的款项，帮助其处理相关的股东集体诉讼案。

一句话：阿里巴巴可能会停止重组支付宝，以解决与雅虎的争端，且可能还要拿出数百万美元计的资金，帮助雅虎处理股东集体诉讼。