91–100 of 112 posts
This seems like a pretty bad deal for foreign investors. http://www.forbes.com/sites/investor/2014/09/15/four-reasons...
Earlier quoted context omitted.
While we're having fun with numbers that don't make much sense to compare given the differences in businesses... Apple generates ~1,000% more net income than Alibaba (projected 2014). Amazon has about ~900% more revenue than Alibaba. Apple has about ~2,000% more revenue than Alibaba. eBay does 100% more in revenue than Alibaba
Crazy part is how much illegal stuff they sell. (knockoffs and fakes)
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Acquisitions with much of the purchase being done in stock. My understanding is that this is very common.
Even if your understanding was true, it still supports my original statement - stock is not cash, and you can't easily get much cash for it on the scale of tens of billions.
My point wasn't that you can turn stock into cash, but that you can turn stock into some of the same things that large amounts of cash might be used for -- acquisitions.
A bit off topic: Is there a good site to keep track of all tech IPOs and including historical data and upcoming/withdrawn IPOs?
Earlier quoted context omitted.
> It's unbelievably unfocused, it does pretty much every kind of business you can do on the Internet. This is standard in China, as well as other Asian nations, which have high-context cultures[0]. People in high-context cultures value familiarity more than people in low-context cultures. What we see as a lack of focus is seen by Chinese consumers as part of Alibaba's value proposition. 0: http://en.wikipedia.org/wik…
This kind of Orientalist armchair psychology is standard in high-bullshit cultures like ours[1]. The reasons for Alibaba's success might have more to do with the unique political and economic conditions that obtain in China than any special feature of the Chinese consumer mind that makes them favor lack of focus.
Do you actually know anything about psychology, or are you just talking out of your ass? Because the idea of high and low context cultures is not a recent or controversial one, and high context cultures are not all "Oriental." In fact, they can be found in southern Europe (not to mention other non-Asian parts of the world) as well.
> The reasons for Alibaba's success might have more to do with the unique political and economic conditions that obtain in China than any special feature of the Chinese consumer mind that makes them favor lack of focus.
1. Similar conglomerates exist in most other Asian nations as well, so it can't be explained away by China's politics or economics.
2. So basically you have no idea of your own as to why Alibaba is successful, other than for the vague claim of "unique political and economic conditions." If anyone is contributing to the high level of bullshit in our culture, it would definitely be you.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
> It's unbelievably unfocused, it does pretty much every kind of business you can do on the Internet. This is standard in China, as well as other Asian nations, which have high-context cultures[0]. People in high-context cultures value familiarity more than people in low-context cultures. What we see as a lack of focus is seen by Chinese consumers as part of Alibaba's value proposition. 0: http://en.wikipedia.org/wik…
There is no such thing as high and low context cultures. ALL culture is high context.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
They do still have some smart people, but I don't think anyone or any amount of money can turn things around for them in any meaningful way. Their pre-Marissa acquisitions were almost universally wastes of time and money. It's too soon to tell about the recent acquisitions, but I don't see them making that $1bn back from Tumblr in my lifetime. Yahoo is an also ran, constantly playing catch up and trying to emulate th…
>Yahoo employees have to use Yahoo Mail for all of their work e-mail. The web interface only, with ads. That is... terrifying. No wonder smart people leave.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
No need to fire everyone. Yahoo made $38M net profit on operations last quarter. All they would have to do is maintain their current assets and employees and the owners get $160m/year in free cash. Then, using their effectively unlimited supply of capital in the form of Alibaba stock, they could make some very smart acquisitions (think for example of buying an instagram for $1b cash and growing it to what it is today…
They do still have some smart people, but I don't think anyone or any amount of money can turn things around for them in any meaningful way. Their pre-Marissa acquisitions were almost universally wastes of time and money. It's too soon to tell about the recent acquisitions, but I don't see them making that $1bn back from Tumblr in my lifetime. Yahoo is an also ran, constantly playing catch up and trying to emulate th…
I don't know where you got this from, if it was true but no longer isn't, or if it's only true in parts of the company, but I was just there for 13 months after an acqui-hire and no one ever made me or anyone on my team use Yahoo Mail.
Alibaba going for a higher selling price just makes the continued undervaluing of Yahoo itself increasingly hilarious. At some point, I would think someone will want to buy them for all of this free money they have sitting around. YHOO market cap : 42.3bn + liabilities : 3.7bn = 46bn (to own outright) Meanwhile: Cash on hand = 1.1bn + Other assets = 15.3bn + Cash from Alibaba sale = 8.3bn + Value of remaining Alibaba…
YHOO market cap : 41.86bn
+ liabilities : 3.7bn
= 45.56bn (-0.44bn)
Cash on hand = 1.1bn
+ Other assets = 15.3bn
+ Cash from Alibaba sale = 8.3bn
+ Value of remaining Alibaba stock = 37.7bn
+ Value of Yahoo Japan stock = 9bn
= 71.4bn (+14.3bn)
If people are so negative about Yahoo that they would rather leave $25bn laying on the ground rather than be associated with them, I think Yahoo has an insurmountable obstacle to future success.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
This kind of Orientalist armchair psychology is standard in high-bullshit cultures like ours[1]. The reasons for Alibaba's success might have more to do with the unique political and economic conditions that obtain in China than any special feature of the Chinese consumer mind that makes them favor lack of focus.
> This kind of Orientalist armchair psychology is standard in high-bullshit cultures like ours[1]. Do you actually know anything about psychology, or are you just talking out of your ass? Because the idea of high and low context cultures is not a recent or controversial one, and high context cultures are not all "Oriental." In fact, they can be found in southern Europe (not to mention other non-Asian parts of the wor…
Personal attacks are not allowed on Hacker News.