Yahoo Sells $150 Million Worth Of Alibaba.com Shares As Tensions Lurk
Yahoo is about to raise approximately $150 million by selling 57.48 million Alibaba.com shares, according to a term sheet obtained by Reuters earlier on Monday. The Internet giant is selling the large chunk of shares at HK$19.80-HK$20.30 each, which represents a 4-6.4% discount to the stock’s closing price of HK$21.15 on Monday and the entire 1.14 percent stake Yahoo held in Alibaba.com, which is China’s largest B2B marketplace.
Yahoo announced a little over 4 years ago that it would purchase a 39% stake in the e-commerce giant’s parent company for US $1 billion – which it will be retaining – plus Yahoo’s Chinese assets (worth about US $700 million). Alibaba in return took charge of Yahoo! China, while Alibaba’s founder Jack Ma remained in charge of Alibaba Group. Yahoo China recently underwent a significant restructuring, during which its popular classified listings service Koubei was taken and moved to Taobao.com.
