Dive Brief:
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Alibaba employees were disappointed to discover Friday that they wouldn’t receive traditional red envelopes with Lunar New Year cash bonuses this year.
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Aside from its massive September IPO, the retail giant in 2014 “has not had exceptional results and not had any special surprises,” says founder and executive chairman Jack Ma.
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The company has seen its share price falter as it battles Chinese and U.S. regulators over fake, dangerous, and grey market goods.
Dive Insight:
Jack Ma was largely dismissive of Alibaba’s record-setting $25 billion IPO in September, saying that it had been in the works for 15 years. The company has stumbled recently, dealing with blowback from its grey-market and black-market troubles.
That got a bit more serious when a white paper, since withdrawn, was published in China. The paper has led to several investor lawsuits alleging that the company wasn’t forthright ahead of its IPO, and the company’s stock price has stumbled since. Alibaba has plenty of opportunity to move past all this, but it must take the right steps to regain its momentum.
