PE firms want Alibaba founder to bid for Yahoo: report

Jack Ma, the former English teacher at Hangzhou Dianzi University in China and the current CEO of the $570-million e-commerce firm Alibaba.com, has reportedly been approached by a group of private-equity firms to interest him in joining a consortium to buy out Yahoo Inc.

Citing a source close to the situation, Reuters today reported that Jack Ma, founder of Alibaba Group, has been approached by a group of private equity investors to gauge his interest in joining a bid to buy Yahoo Inc.

The report said that its source did not reveal the names of the PE firms and that it was unclear whether it was the same PE firms that had teamed up last month with AOL to explore the possibility of taking over Yahoo.

Jack Ma has yet to make any decision about being a part of the consortium, the report added.

Alibaba.com, China's largest e-commerce company is 39-per cent owned by Yahoo and both companies have seen their relationship souring after Yahoo refused to sell its stake in Alibaba, currently worth around $11 billion. (See: Alibaba says no room for Yahoo's CEO on its board) Yahoo had acquired its stake in Alibaba.com in 2005 for $1.1 billion.

Carol Bartz, who was appointed the new Yahoo CEO in January 2009 to change the flagging fortunes of the company after founder Jerry Yang stepped down under shareholder pressure over resistance to the Microsoft bid, has not been able to turn the company around although she has sold non-core assets and has been able to reduce costs.