Kara Swisher

Recent Posts by Kara Swisher

Yahoo's Good News From China

Well, news out of China for Yahoo has never been very good, what with all the human-rights issues–that would be jailing of people related to information the company has released to Chinese authorities there.

But, there seems to be some silver lining with the IPO of Alibaba.com. Shares of Yahoo did decline yesterday due to intense focus and perhaps some profit-taking on the business-to-business e-commerce portal, in which Yahoo holds a stake.

alibaba

In its offering yesterday, Alibaba.com raised $1.5 billion, although investors expected substantially more shares to be sold. Yahoo agreed to buy $100 million of the Alibaba.com shares, and it also owns a 39% share in its parent, the Alibaba Group.

alibabachart

The IPO has had a dulcet impact on Yahoo shares in recent weeks, lifting its stock price in anticipation of a killing when Alibaba.com debuts on the Hong Kong stock exchange Nov. 6.

Here’s a good Wall Street Journal piece about Alibaba.com and a chart to peruse, if you feel like helping Jerry Yang keep Yahoo stock smoking (well, a little wildfire, at least!).

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Another gadget you don’t really need. Will not work once you get it home. New model out in 4 weeks. Battery life is too short to be of any use.

— From the fact sheet for a fake product entitled Useless Plasticbox 1.2 (an actual empty plastic box) placed in L.A.-area Best Buy stores by an artist called Plastic Jesus