When Yahoo Met Alibaba: The Third Time Was the Charm

When Yahoo Met Alibaba: The Third Time Was the Charm

In May of 2005, Yahoo CEO Terry Semel, co-founder Jerry Yang, business development executive Toby Coppel and I went on what would turn out to be a fateful trip to China.

Fateful for Yahoo, for certain.

Less than a decade later, the ownership stake that resulted from that trip has been the saving grace for the company that had once dominated the early Internet. The value of the shares bought then, in fact, now make up a big chunk of the value of Yahoo today, and the windfall of cash from that purchase is what many hope will allow it to remake its uncertain future.