Jack Ma’s retirement as Alibaba CEO fuels IPO speculation
Jack Ma will step down as CEO of Alibaba Group in May ahead of the private equity-backed firm’s widely anticipated IPO. Ma, who will remain as chairman indicated that he wanted to hand over to a younger successor, telling employees that “the next generation of Alibaba people are better equipped to manage an internet ecosystem like ours.”
Alibaba was set up in 1999 and since become one of China's "big three" internet companies alongside Baidu and Tencent. With businesses including trading platform Alibaba.com, online shopping sites Taobao and Tmall and electronic payment system Alipay, the company dominates the B2B, C2C and B2C spaces, as well as controlling a major channel through which purchases are transacted.
Last year, Alibaba bought back part of Yahoo's stake in a $7.6 billion deal. This included $5.9 billion in financing, of which $3.9 billion was private equity capital supplied by China Investment Corporation (CIC), Boyu Capital, CITIC Capital and CDB Capital.
Silver Lake, DST Global and Temasek Holdings also participated, having previously paid $2 billion for a 5.7% stake in the company through an employee liquidity event in 2011.
The Yahoo buyback was the second of two major restructuring transactions completed by Alibaba, which earlier completed the privatization of Hong Kong-listed Alibaba.com. These activities were widely seen as smoothing the path for an IPO by the overall group. Alibaba is committed to going public as part of the agreement with the Yahoo.
As to what Ma will do next, he said in the announcement that he would focus on "setting strategic direction, helping to develop managerial talent within the company's ranks, and strengthening Alibaba's social-responsibility efforts."
Ma previously told Bloomberg Businessweek that his interests included tai chi, movies, environmental protection, traditional Chinese medicine and private equity. He set up Yunfeng Capital with Focus Media's David Yu and the investment firm was among the participants in both Alibaba deals.
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