Alibaba Chief 'Very Interested' in Acquiring Yahoo

The world's largest online business-to-business trading company, Alibaba, is thinking of taking over the troubled Internet firm Yahoo, its chairman says.

Jack Ma, chairman of Alibaba Group Holding Ltd., said in a recent statement at Stanford University in California: We are very interested in Yahoo.

Alibaba, already holds 40 percent stock in the company, for which it paid more than $1 billion six years ago.

After the ouster of CEO Carol Bartz, Yahoo has been seeking a new strategy to revive a business where it has lost ground to Google and Facebook.

Ma is interested in acquiring the whole Internet company, and not just a part of it. When asked about what part of Yahoo he would like to acquire, he said, The whole piece of Yahoo.

Ma is believed to have held discussions with other potential investors about a takeover.

According to a report by Financial Times, the Aliababa Group, just a week before the announcement of its chairman, received $1.6 billion in investment from a consortium including Silver Lake, the California private equity fund; DST, the Russian group, and Temasek, the Singaporean sovereign wealth fund.

If observers are to be believed, Ma is likely to bid for Yahoo together with the new Alibaba shareholders.

If a deal between Alibaba and Yahoo takes place it will be the biggest takeover of an American concern by a Chinese company ever.