The WSJ reports, "Alibaba said Thursday it bought a 50% stake in China's Guangzhou Evergrande soccer team for 1.2 billion yuan ($192 million), a deal that Alibaba's founder said was ironed out in a mere 15 minutes.
The transaction is the latest in a string of purchases by Alibaba and takes the company into the terrain of sports, where many high-profile companies have stumbled.
Speaking in the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou on Thursday, Mr. Ma said the deal to buy the stake in Guangzhou Evergrande Football Club only came together in recent days after Mr. Ma had drinks in Hong Kong with club owner Xu Jiayin, a property magnate.
"It's actually cheap," Mr. Ma said. "I had no idea how much a soccer club is worth."
The team is owned by Mr. Xu's Evergrande Group, a property developer. Mr. Xu has a net worth of $7.7 billion, according to the Hurun Report wealth-tracking service. He also has political clout, serving as a member of the country's top legislative advisory body, the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference.
Chinese President Xi Jinping, a professed soccer fan, has said he wants China to qualify for and perhaps host the World Cup.
In the run-up to its U.S. listing, Alibaba has been making a slew of deals to bolster its core business and to broaden its appeal.
As China's hundreds of millions of Internet users have increasingly turned to smartphones to access the Internet, Alibaba has faced challenges attracting users, who are much more accustomed to shopping on Alibaba's PC-based websites. The turn to entertainment could be one way for the company to ensure a steady flow of traffic to its mobile e-commerce sites.
Simon Wong, a corporate-governance expert at the London School of Economics, said buying a stake in a soccer club may raise red flags to prospective investors. "You should focus on what you're good at and this seems so ancillary to what they're doing today," he said.
Even after Alibaba lists, Mr. Wong said, "there will be a small group of shareholders that can make decisions without consulting outside institutional investors, that makes me think twice."
Still, the investment pairs China's best soccer club with one of its most successful entrepreneurs and is likely to prove popular with the country's myriad soccer fans".
