Alibaba Group has recently bought back half the stake that Yahoo owned in the company. The deal is estimated at around $7.6 billion. The move in question ended the years of horse trading that actually cost the careers of a few Yahoo chiefs and cleared the path for Alibaba Group to make an IPO.
According to the financial information, Alibaba has paid the company around $6.3 billion in cash and $800 million in its own preferred shares. In addition, Alibaba also made a single cash payment of $550 million due to amendments to the two outfits’ intellectual property license agreement. Media reports revealed that Yahoo was going to give its shareholders $3 billion of the $4.3 billion of the sale proceeds, that’s in addition to the $646 million down payment which it has already gave back to its shareholders via buybacks.
In fact, most of the company’s value was tied up in Alibaba and for different reasons Yahoo didn’t want to lose its Chinese investment. That’s why the company still owns around a quarter of Alibaba’s common stock. The latter is valued at over $8 billion and taking into account its preferred stock, its stake would be valued at almost $9 billion.
Prior to the purchase Yahoo owned almost 40% of Alibaba. The latter noted that when it comes to its IPO, the company will have the right to buy back 50% of the Yahoo’s remaining share. According to Alibaba Chief Executive Officer Jack Ma, the completion of the deal would start a new level of the company’s relationship with Yahoo.
By the way, Yahoo acquired its stake in Alibaba seven years for only $1 billion and the sale of its Yahoo China business to the company. Decent investment it seems to be.
No comments:
Post a Comment