Alipay Spin-Off: End in Sight for Yahoo? 阿里巴巴与雅虎缘分已尽？
After years of having to deal with the antics of Alibaba Group Chairman Jack Ma, who makes no secret of his distaste for his company’s controlling shareholder, Yahoo (Nasdaq: YHOO), we’re finally seeing some movement that could result in the eventual divorce of this greatly mismatched pair. Their latest dispute, as many will know, involves Alipay, Alibaba’s online payments service that became a major source of contention after Ma secretly moved the company into a separate firm with no connections to its parent and then waited a while before telling Yahoo, which owns 40 percent of Alibaba, and Softbank, Alibaba’s second biggest shareholder. I’m not sure what Ma is trying to prove by doing something like this, as anyone who knows the first thing about good governance would agree you need to tell your biggest shareholders when you’re divesting a major asset like Alipay. But all that is history now, and Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz said this week that Yahoo, Softbank and Alibaba are in talks to resolve this matter. (English article) 
At the end of the day, I see Alibaba receiving a chunk of cash — up to $5 billion by some estimates — as compensation for Alipay, which it will no doubt immediately distribute as a special dividend to its shareholders, including Yahoo and Softbank. That will leave just Alibaba.com and Taobao as the group’s major assets, with market cap of about $8 billion for the former and perhaps another $4-$5 billion for Taobao. If Yahoo is as sick of Alibaba as I am, they’ll be smart and quickly negotiate a buyout for their stake after the Alipay dispute is settled, and let Jack Ma determine his own tumultuous future.
Bottom line: Yahoo’s talks in its latest blow-up with Alibaba could ultimately end up in a universal settlement that lets Yahoo wash its hands of this lucrative but problematic asset.
马云毫不掩饰对其最大股东雅虎<YHOO.O>的厌恶。见识了马云这几年的动作後，我们终於看到了可能导致阿里巴巴与雅虎分道扬镳的动作。很多人都知道，支付宝事件近来成为阿里巴巴与雅虎争执的焦点。马云将支付宝的所有权转移至一家与雅虎没有关系的公司，而等了一段时间後才知会持有阿里巴巴40%股权的雅虎和第二大股东软银(Softbank)。我不知道马云这麽做是想证明点什麽，因为大家都知道，好的公司治理意味着，要把像支付宝这麽大的资产剥离出去，需要告诉最大股东。但这已经发生了，雅虎首席执行官卡罗尔•巴茨本周表示，雅虎、Softbank和阿里巴巴在讨论此事的解决方案。最终我发现阿里巴巴收到了一大笔现金–有人估计高达50亿美元–作为对支付宝的补偿，而这笔钱肯定会立即被作为特别股息分配给股东，如雅虎和软银。这一解决方案会让Alibaba.com和淘宝成为阿里巴巴最大的资产，其中前者市值80亿美元，後者市值40-50亿美元。如果雅虎也像我这样讨厌阿里巴巴，那麽他们就应该在风波平息後，尽快与阿里巴巴谈出售股权的事，让马云自己决定未来的命运。
一句话：阿里巴巴与雅虎最近的争端可能导致双方分道扬镳，使得雅虎放弃这份虽然诱人但问题重重的资产。
Related postings 相关文章:
◙ Alibaba’s Latest Yahoo Spat Masks Tepid Results 阿里巴巴与雅虎打口水仗是场烟幕弹？
◙ Alibaba Challnges Investors to Read Between the Lines As Big Slowdown Looms 阿里巴巴：财报说了些什麽？
◙ Alibaba Resignations: Is the Magic Gone?
