Yahoo owns a roughly 39% stake in Alibaba which is by far the most valuable asset on Yahoo's books. Alibaba has been wanting to repurchase this stake for a while now. With Yahoo so cheap, buying the whole company might be the easiest way to buy back the stock. The rest of Yahoo is just icing on the Alibaba cake (if not an outright liability).
China of course has a few trillion in US Treasury bills burning a hole in its pocket (they dont belong to Alibaba but they presumably have RMB to change for them). The only sane solution for China is to start buying real assets in the US. One official recently suggested they buy Intel, Apple and Boeing. But hey why not Yahoo too. There will be a lot of these purchases coming up.
I can see Apple being on that list, but Intel and Boeing are of strategic importance to the US and I don't think congress would agree with such sales just like that.
Boeing is a defense contractor so no sale would be allowed, and also you are off a bit by the amount of T-Bills China holds. It is just over 1 trillion, and has essentially held steady for the last 12 months.
The Chinese central government needs to maintain its high level of reserves, because under their system they are also the guarantor for all local and provincal government debt (which is enormous).
Er, what would a local or provincial government do with dollars? Unless they dollarize the economy, they would just ask to convert them to RMB. The government has bailed out some banks with dollars which they cant convert, but that is easier as its last resort capital.
Carol Bartz and Jack Ma did not get along at all. She chewed him out in front of his underlings in Sunnyvale when they first met; and he never forgave her for that. Getting insulted in front of your underlings is a huge deal in many cultures.
If Bartz was still the CEO, she would have torpedoed any possible deal like this. So she had to go. The Board fired her to pave the way for Ma to put together a deal.
Ma says he'll be spending the next year in the US, "studying the market". Why the heck would he be wasting time here, when he already has a huge company to run in China, if he didn't intend on making a massive acquisition?
The next few months should be "interesting", if you're a Yahoo.
Oh those wacky Asians with their totally-unknown-in-the-West cultural practices like remembering petty grievances, having personality conflicts with bosses, and running Yahoo.
Seriously for a second: any time you feel the need to explain behavior by reference to culture, consider the compelling alternative that they're a real person just like you.
Notice I said "many cultures". For example: in some Arab cultures, if you sit with your sole (of your foot) towards the other person, it is considered an insult. I remember Diane Sawyer(?) of ABC going to interview Saddam Hussein; she sat with her sole towards him and he walked out. Of course, she didn't know; but these things happen.
Before you read too much into a statement (I will once again point out the "many cultures" part), please read what's written. I know, every one's on a hair trigger to jump on the slightest perceived slight on the Internet; but take a chill pill, man.
Unfortunately they already did. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shi_Tao for the details. Long stories short: Yahoo's Hong Kong arm gave private emails to the Chinese government which resulted a guy being jailed for 10 years. You'd better worry about Yahoo's ethics now. To date, the only mail provider I trust is Google.
By the way, demonizing anyone because s/he is from "communist China" is plain stupid. I'm pretty sure you'll get downvoted on HN.
I'm not "demonizing" anyone... you are a complete idiot. The US government would not allow this transaction to occur. That is a fact. And I'm pretty sure you're the one guy who downvoted me... and I don't really care if more downvote me because HN is quite a conformist hivemind.
BTW, I already knew about that case... and it changes nothing.
How times change.