Alibaba Group proposes to privatize e-commerce site Alibaba.com
- 22 February, 2012 01:01
- Comments 4
Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Group has proposed privatizing business-to-business platform Alibaba.com as the site faces slower revenue growth brought on by a shift to focus on long-term gains.
The proposal, announced on Tuesday, will free Alibaba.com from the market pressures of being listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, said company CFO Maggie Wu during a conference call.
Alibaba.com, which connects buyers and sellers to source goods, had previously focused on rapidly increasing the site's customers to maximize revenues. But last year, Alibaba.com shifted its strategy to improve the buying experience on the site.
Although Alibaba.com said its strategy will pay off over the long-term, the company will face slower growth in the near term as it adds fewer paying customers over the period and makes additional investments in its business, Wu said.
The announcements comes after reports that Yahoo was in negotiations to sell off its share of Alibaba Group. Alibaba.com, however, said the proposal to privatize was unrelated to any talks with Yahoo.
The proposal from Alibaba Group, which owns 73 percent of Alibaba.com, would give minority shareholders Hk$13.50 (US$1.74) per share in cash. Alibaba.com had suspended trading on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange earlier this month.
Alibaba.com's shift in strategy came after an internal investigation found more than 2,000 suppliers on the site had engaged in scams against overseas buyers. The investigation concluded that Alibaba.com had been too focused on short-term financial gains. Alibaba.com moved to quickly restore confidence in the site, paying back customers of the fraud and appointing a new CEO for the company.
Recommended
Join the CIO Australia group on LinkedIn. The group is open to CIOs, IT Directors, COOs, CTOs and senior IT managers.
- Bookmark this page
- Share this article
- Got more on this story? Email CIO
- Follow CIO on twitter
- HTC unveils new Butterfly s phone that packs more battery life
- Google Glass apps for enterprises coming by early 2014
- iPad 5 rumour rollup for the week ending June 18
- Say 'cheese', Earthlings! Spacecraft to snap home planet pic from deep space
- Social media adds spice to financial services, say banks
-
Samsung Galaxy S4 vs. HTC One: 5 Reasons to Choose the GS4
-
High school students still see ICT as ‘sitting at a computer all day’: survey
-
Does encryption really shield you from government's prying eyes?
-
Solving the skills conundrum – part 1
-
Australia suspected to have PRISM data: Ludlam
-
Top Five Reasons Why Customers Deploy a Flash 1st Strategy on EMC VNX Storage
Customers are increasingly virtualising their environments to maximize capacity and cut cost. With only a few Flash drives and the software products in the FAST Suite, EMC VNX customers can realise those same benefits in their storage environment with a Flash 1st data strategy. Download now and find out how customers no longer have to compromise between performance & TCO. -
Hybrid IT Service Management: A Requirement for Virtualisation and Cloud Computing
When competition is tough and resources are limited, corporate leaders are depending on growing their existing capabilities in order to grow their business. Information technology can be a unique catalyst for business growth, delivering a competitive advantage when creatively applied to established and emerging problems. Read more on what trends are accelerating the value of IT. -
Real-Time Protection Against Malware Infection
Malware is at such high levels (more than 60 million unique samples per year) that protecting an endpoint with traditional antivirus software, has become futile. More than 100,000 new types of malware are now released every day, and antivirus vendors are racing to add new protection features to try to keep their protection levels up. Read more.
Get exclusive access to Invitation only events CIO, reports & analysis. 
Comments
kalihto
1
Good source between buyers and sellers.
Sonicare for kids
2
Good post. I'm dealing with many of these issues as well..
chair rail
3
If you wish for to get a great deal from this post then you have to apply these strategies to your
won web site.
blackberry
4
Yes! Finally someone writes about mobile phone unlocking.