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(Reuters) - If anyone can pull off the labyrinthine deal between Alibaba Group and Yahoo Inc, it's Jack Ma, who founded the e-commerce group and within a decade unlocked China's huge online shopping potential.
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The former tour guide and English teacher, who is now worth around $1.6 billion according to Forbes and has dubbed himself 'China's Forrest Gump', built his e-commerce empire from scratch and has steered it through numerous bumps.
Ma is now said to be contemplating taking his flagship listed unit, Alibaba.com, private as part of an asset-swap deal with Yahoo, which holds 40 percent of Alibaba Group.
Founded in 1999, Alibaba has grown into an enterprise spanning business-to-consumer (B2C) and consumer-to-consumer (C2C) trade, logistics, search and e-payment. Some analysts value the group at up to $32 billion.
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Ma, 47, lean and down-to-earth, founded the group on the principle of championing small businesses in the battle against industry giants.
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But battling giants has become increasingly unavoidable.
Alibaba Group has long sought to buy back its shares owned by Yahoo since 2005. With new leadership at the U.S. Internet pioneer, that plan is picking up speed.
Yahoo's stake in Alibaba Group is worth an estimated $13-$14 billion. Under plans being discussed, sources have told Reuters, Alibaba wants to buy back a stake of around 25 percent for around $9 billion - with around $6 billion in cash and a third via a stake in one of its operating assets.
"He has been a strong leader in the Alibaba business. In the negotiations with Yahoo, he's always been clear about his interest to buy his stake back," said Dick Wei, a Hong Kong-based analyst with J.P. Morgan, who noted that while the wheels are finally turning on a Yahoo deal, it may take some time before an agreement is reached.
Last year, Alibaba broke up its crown jewel Taobao, estimated by Goldman Sachs to be worth around $7 billion, into three parts to better compete with rivals Dangdang and 360buy.
More recently, Taobao Mall changed its Chinese name to rebrand itself, and said it would raise fees to improve its service, prompting protests by some sellers on the platform.
CATCHING SHRIMP
Ma has often said his vision is to serve small and medium enterprises (SME).
"My inspiration came from the American movie Forrest Gump," Ma told an American audience in 2009. "Because Forrest Gump said 'shrimp,' we decided to help SMEs. We wanted to catch the shrimp instead of catching the whales."
