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Alibaba buys into California eCommerce company

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Chinese eCommerce giant Alibaba has continued its relationship with Yahoo and gained another foothold in California with its recent investment in ShopRunner, run by former Yahoo Chief Executive Scott Thompson, Shoprunner is an ecommerce firm based in San Francisco with existing relationships with many major brand names. They are growing fast with orders in 2012 increased two and a half times more than in 2011.

Alibaba, which is planning for an IPO later this year is reportedly paying $75 million for a minority stake in ShopRunner, While Mr. Thompson is no longer at the company, Yahoo owns almost a quarter of Alibaba so some relationship apparently persisted.

This is said to be one of many purchases Alibaba is making in advance of their IPO on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, that is expected value the firm at $60-$100 billion. The move has not been without controversy. A Hong Kong journalist recently quit her job in a controversy over disputed remarks that Jack Ma, founder of the Alibaba Group, is said to have made in support of Beijing’s violent crackdown on Tienanmen Square protesters in 1989. Mr. Ma denies he said that but the newspaper is sticking to the story and it apparently caused quite a stir in Hong Kong.

Alibaba began in 1999 as a business-to-business portal to connect Chinese manufacturers with overseas buyers. It has since become the biggest eCommerce system in the world, with with sales more then Amazon and eBay combined. The planned IPO will likely secure its position as a global powerhouse in eCommerce for many years to come.


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