Yang Departure Cuts Final Yahoo-Alibaba Ties 雅虎即将与阿里撇清关系

By newsdoug on January 18, 2012

Yahoo, Alibaba prepare to untie the knot If Yahoo (Nasdaq: YHOO) was looking for a way to tell the world that its troubled relationship with Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Group was nearing an end, then the just-announced resignation of Yahoo co-founder Jerry Yang from all his posts at both companies looks like the perfect and very appropriate signal. Yang’s resignation means he will relinquish his positions as a director on the boards of both Yahoo and Alibaba, marking a quiet end to a stormy chapter in both companies’ history. (English article) Yang and Alibaba founder Jack Ma made headlines in 2005 when they announced that Yahoo would buy 40 percent of Alibaba for $1 billion to create a potent partnership that would combine Alibaba’s expertise in e-commerce with Yahoo’s in online search. But it soon became clear that Jack Ma was more interested in Yahoo’s money than anything Yang or his company had to offer in terms of advice — a reality that was fine with both sides as Yang focused on trying to rebuild Yahoo’s core US-focused business as it rapidly lost share to a more nimble Google (Nasdaq: GOOG). All that changed when Yang resigned as Yahoo CEO and yielded the job to Carol Bartz, an executive whose aggressive style clashed with Ma’s own similar style and led to a prolonged period of tense relations between the 2 companies. Through all of that, Yang, who remained as a non-executive board member of Yahoo, continued to maintain personal ties with Alibaba, getting invitations and often attending the Chinese company’s Alifest big annual conference in its hometown of Hangzhou. Yang’s resignation from both the Alibaba and Yahoo boards comes just 2 weeks after Yahoo named Scott Thompson as its new CEO, filling the position that has been vacant since Bartz was fired last year. I suspect the departure was a condition when Thompson agreed to take the job, aimed at giving him a clear mandate to run the company with a fresh start. Alibaba and its bankers have been sending a nonstop series of signals to the market that they have raised enough money to buy out Yahoo’s 40 percent Alibaba stake, and Yang’s departure should remove the final reminder of the forces behind the original tie-up that can let this much-needed divorce finally go forward. When that happens, which could be in the next 2 months, I wouldn’t be at all surprised to see Yang suddenly appear in Alibaba, either as an investor or perhaps even an executive in one of the company’s units.

Bottom line: Jerry Yang’s resignation from the boards of Yahoo and Alibaba signal a pending divorce of the 2 companies, which could see Yang ultimately end up as an investor or executive at Alibaba.

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