Monday, October 22, 2007

Alibaba.com - will the shark fin story ever end?.....

Alibaba is making some exciting news in the financial world. The IPO in Hong Kong is going so well that the targeted amount of US-$ 1,3 billion might have to be increased to US-$ 1,5 billion to satisfy at least some of the huge demand for the new shares.

While that will be rather healthy for both Alibaba's CEO, Mr. Jack Ma, and the new shareholders, it will not help the sharks as long as Alibaba sticks to its online shark fin brokerage.

The latest news is that Alibaba have retained Hill & Knowlton, a leading international PR agency as their consultants.

I have read two comments in a shark discussion group regarding Alibaba's new PR advisors:

- "H&K is a heavyweight PR firm. They step in to assist large companies when they have image problems. The fact that Alibaba felt it was necessary to hire H&K is a good sign. Wolfgang is reaching them."

- "It is not a good sign - they dont like loosing."

Whoever might be right, here is an update on the collaboration between Hill & Knowlton and Alibaba:

http://www.stopsharkfinning.net/news.htm

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