Alibaba CEO Jack Ma at Stanford
Stanford Business has put the footage of Jack Ma’s recent speech online. The Alibaba CEO raised eyebrows on both sides of the ocean when he says – very deliberately – that he was “very interested in Yahoo” during the talk.
But the entire talk is worth a watch if you have an hour to spare. He talks with a lot of passion about the success of Alibaba, but also alludes their many mistakes and difficulties, including Taobao’s intellectual property challenges.
If you don’t have time to check the whole talk, you can skip to his Yahoo comments here and here. He also made an fun quip about Chinese censorship that I found amusing as well. You might also check our previous comments from last week about Jack’s interest in Yahoo.
On a related note, there are reports today that Yahoo could soon sell its 35 percent stake in Yahoo Japan (Softbank owns about 40 percent). According to a Financial Times report, the company is “moving closer to shedding its stake … as it waits for US tax authorities to give guidance on a structure through which the embattled internet company could cash in on its holding.” The article adds that the sale of the Yahoo Japan stake could help with the sale of Yahoo as a whole.
It is so true that Jack Ma proved US VC wrong as well as thier Investment model which is outdated. I also dont like empire thinking business model. Hope he can write a book to tell us about US business regulations that people dont hear of. Looking forward to read your book.
Very informative & inspiring 1 hr speech by Jack Ma. Love it & gonna watch it again later. in it, he spoke about several issues: how China is not about guangxi; Alibaba is not own by him or his team, but by the people in China; Alibaba interest in Yahoo-not just cn part but the whole piece++ very nice