Alibaba Buys Itself Back from Yahoo

Michael Garrity — Tue, 22 May 2012 11:00:00 GMT

It seems that Facebook doesn’t get all of this week's press when it comes to major tech companies and deals that go for billion-dollar figures. At least not as long as Yahoo and Alibaba have something to say about it.

Yahoo is tying up some loose ends with Alibaba, in which the company has owned a 40-percent stake for some time.

Alibaba will be buying back half of Yahoo’s stake in the company, and it’s going to cost them $7.1 billion. Yahoo is going to receive $6.3 billion in cash and as much as $800 million in preferred stock. The company initially bought the 40-percent stake for $1 billion in 2005.

This deal values Alibaba somewhere between $30 and $35 billion, meaning an IPO could also be somewhere in the not-too-distant future for the Chinese e-commerce company.

Google's Stock Plummets

Mike Phillips — Mon, 18 Apr 2011 15:48:00 GMT

Is Google on the Ropes?

Google's stock is in a tailspin. Since Friday, it's down about 10 percent, around $522 per share as of this writing. That's what happens when you miss projections, even though earnings are again on the rise. Earnings of $8.08 missed the mark by two cents and, as reported by Adweek, expenses went through the roof -- to the tune of 34 percent. What is Google paying through the nose for? In large part, employees. Out of fear.

Apparently Google offered two employees a combined $150 million in stock grants to keep them from defecting to Twitter. It's not the first time -- Google previously offered another employee millions to not join Facebook's staff. Then, Larry Page did Google no favors by basically ignoring Wall Street's concerns and questions about the missed earnings and rising expenses.

If it seems like Google has been grasping at straws lately ... it's because they are. What stands out most is the $6 billion hastily thrown at Groupon, which was famously rebuffed. But there's also Google's several failed attempts at "going social" and a recent flurry of algorithm updates.

Of course, Google is not going anywhere, any time soon. But they do look unusually vulnerable.

'Net Features : stock

Alibaba Buys Itself Back from Yahoo

Google's Stock Plummets