Yahoo! sells stake in Alibaba.com for 150 mln dlrs

September 14, 2009

US Internet company Yahoo! announced on Monday that it has sold its one percent stake in Hong Kong-listed e-commerce company Alibaba.com for some 150 million dollars.

"Yahoo! Inc has sold all of its approximate one percent direct stake in Alibaba.com," the Sunnyvale, California-based company said in a statement.

Yahoo! sold 57.48 million shares in Alibaba.com for 19.80-20.30 Hong Kong dollars (2.54-2.60 US dollars) each, a discount of 4.0 to 6.4 percent on its closing price of 21.15 Hong Kong dollars on Monday.

Yahoo! invested some 100 million dollars in Alibaba.com in connection with the company's initial public offering in November 2007.

The Internet company said it had sold its direct stake in Alibaba.com because the value of its investment had "increased substantially" since the IPO.

Yahoo! said it will continue to maintain a 40 percent interest in Alibaba Group, which owns about 70 percent of Alibaba.com, giving Yahoo! a 28 percent indirect interest in Alibaba.com.

The company added that it "believes that its investment in Alibaba Group is an important long-term way to participate in the China market."

John Spelich, Hong Kong-based vice president for international corporate affairs at Alibaba Group, said they welcomed the share sale.

"We are pleased to learn of the Yahoo! decision because having broader ownership of Alibaba.com with increased liquidity and support among institutional investors is what Alibaba.com hoped to achieve," he said in a statement sent to AFP.

(c) 2009 AFP