Alibaba will split Taobao instead of seeking a float
ALIBABA Group said yesterday it has reorganised Taobao, China’s largest e-commerce website, into three separate companies, squashing any chance of a Taobao public offering.
The move to split Taobao comes as Alibaba Group founder Jack Ma grapples with its major shareholders, Yahoo and Japan’s Softbank, over ownership of Alipay, another of the group’s crown jewels.
Taobao had 70 per cent of all online sales transacted in China in the first quarter of the year and has been valued by Goldman Sachs at about $7bn.
The firm will be split into three companies – its product search engine eTao, business-to-consumer website Taobao Mall and consumer-to-consumer website Taobao.com.
“We believe that reorganising Taobao into smaller companies will create more value for the whole industry, and therefore, more value to our company and shareholders,” Ma said yesterday.