According to the company’s bylaws, the partners will keep an iron grip over the company after its IPO because they hold the power to nominate directors to a majority of Alibaba’s board seats.
Alibaba, which powers 80% of all online commerce in China, is expected to raise more than USD 15 billion for 2014.
The personal stakes of only two partners have been disclosed in filings so far: lead founder Jack Ma, who owns 8.9% of Alibaba, while Joseph Tsai, co-founder and executive vice-chairman, is the only other individual with a disclosed stake of 3.6%. Yahoo and SoftBank own 22.6% and 34.4% of Alibaba, respectively.
Every day we send out a free e-mail with the most important headlines of the last 24 hours.
Subscribe now