How Risky Is Jack Ma's Alibaba Today?
Chinese billionaire and founder of Alibaba Group Holding (NYSE: BABA) Jack Ma has been all over the news lately, but for all the wrong reasons.
Ma and his financial holdings, which include large stakes in Alibaba and Ant Group, have been under attack by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) ever since he gave a controversial speech in October. At that time at a conference in Shanghai with a number of Chinese political and financial bigwigs in attendance, Ma slammed the Chinese regulatory establishment, saying it operates with a "pawnshop" mentality. He mocked financial bureaucrats for obsessing over risk to the detriment of innovation.
Chinese regulators were stung by the remarks and have responded personally against Ma, first blocking Ant Group's IPO in November, which was set to be the biggest in the world, and then on Dec. 24 when Chinese authorities announced an antitrust investigation into Alibaba, which sparked a sell-off that wiped $100 billion off of the company's market cap.
Source Fool.com
