Yahoo to buy 10 percent of Alibaba.com IPO shares

Stake in business-to-business site's IPO part of Yahoo strategy to compete with Google and Baidu.

The story "Yahoo to buy 10 percent of Alibaba.com IPO shares" published October 9, 2007 at 6:47 AM is no longer available on CNET News.

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[wleander]

Alibaba / Yahoo!

This is all very exciting financial stuff... But wait a second, there is something else you or else the potential Alibaba shareholders should know:<br /><br />Alibaba.com is not only China?s biggest e-commerce firm but also the world?s largest online shark fin trader. And Yahoo! don't seem to mind. They already have a US-$ 1 billion stake in Alibaba, representing a 40% shareholding, and will soon increase their investment in Alibaba by another 10%.<br /><br />Activist groups, individuals, media organizations have approached both Alibaba.com and Yahoo! with a view to induce them to drop the shark fin trade. The reaction from them was utterly disappointing. While the Alibaba.com executives stated that they do not wish to ?take sides? in the ongoing ?controversy?, Yahoo! innocently claimed that they are not in a position to interfere with the business policies of corporations in which they don?t have a majority shareholding.<br /><br />The fact of the matter is that both firms do not want to end the highly lucrative trade of shark fins. They blatantly ignore the well-founded conclusion of internationally renowned marine experts that the indiscriminate mass killing of sharks solely for their fins is driving many species toward extinction with catastrophic consequences for the biodiversity of the oceans.<br /><br />By offering international shark fin dealers a convenient platform to do business Alibaba.com / Yahoo! are fueling the often illegal finning of sharks and, thus, actively and recklessly contribute to an environmental disaster they are very well aware of.<br /><br />Here is an article that was published by Business Week recently:<br /><br /><a class="jive-link-external" href="http://www.businessweek.com/globalbiz/content/jul2007/gb20070720_756191.htm" target="_newWindow">http://www.businessweek.com/globalbiz/content/jul2007/gb20070720_756191.htm</a><br /><br />And here you will find a letter from the CEO of the Sea Shepherd Society to the President of Yahoo!:<br /><br /><a class="jive-link-external" href="http://www.seashepherd.org/news/media_071004_1_article.html" target="_newWindow">http://www.seashepherd.org/news/media_071004_1_article.html</a><br /><br />The international pressure on Alibaba to stop trading shark fins will increase. Soon Alibaba's CEO Jack Ma and the President of Yahoo!, Susan Decker, will have to realize that the firm's involvement in this unsavoury business will severely damage its reputation. Too bad they cannot come to the conclusion now that it would be much better business for them to adopt an environmentally responsible trade policy than to keep hawking shark body parts.<br /><br /> <br />Wolfgang Leander

[StopSharkFinning]

Our oceans are being decimated

Alibaba and Yahoo are facilitating the decimation of the world's oceans. This is an international environmental catastrophe. I don't care how much money Alibaba or Yahoo are making, they are bad news for the planet. If you are truly interested in your well-being, find out more about the problem here:<br /><a class="jive-link-external" href="http://www.stopsharkfinning.net/" target="_newWindow">http://www.stopsharkfinning.net/</a>