Yahoo!, Softbank and Alibaba Partnership Delayed Again
- Alibaba, Yahoo! and Softbank seemed to have reached a pact over the transfer of the e-payment subsidiary of Alibaba, Alipay. Alibaba’s shareholders Yahoo! and Softbank disagreed with Alipay’s transfer to another Chinese company belonging to Alibaba’s president.
- An agreement originally planned that Alibaba would contribute to Alipay’s financial results. Also, Alipay should have provided preferential payment services to its former parent company as well as to its subsidiaries.
- This arrangement seemed to have relieved tensions but finally caused Yahoo!’s shareholders to file a complaint. They claim their strategic one-billion dollars investment in Alibaba did not imply Alipay’s transfer to another company.
- Yahoo! shareholders are convinced that the investment cost would have been lower without Alipay. They explain they had not been informed of this transfer before May 10.