Ciaran McCrickard
The confrontation between Jack Ma and Beijing has cost his businesses more than $850 billion, Bloomberg summarized the nearly three-year-long effort the Chinese government used to target the millionaire.
Chinese officials announced on Friday, July 7 that they had finished looking into Ma's fintech business Ant Group, which will now have to pay a $1 billion fine.
After the billionaire attacked Chinese regulators in October 2020, accusing them of stifling innovation, the probe got under way. Beijing responded by stopping Ant Group's IPO, which would have been the biggest in history, and fining Ma's other company, Alibaba, record-high amounts of money.
However, expenses for Alibaba and Ant go beyond fines. Following the postponement of the initial public offering, Ant Group was forced to change its business strategy, scaling back operations in delicate economic sectors and avoiding direct competition with state institutions. As a result, Bloomberg reports that the company's valuation, which was estimated to reach $ 315 billion following the IPO, decreased to $ 78.5 billion.
source: bloomberg.com
Chinese officials announced on Friday, July 7 that they had finished looking into Ma's fintech business Ant Group, which will now have to pay a $1 billion fine.
After the billionaire attacked Chinese regulators in October 2020, accusing them of stifling innovation, the probe got under way. Beijing responded by stopping Ant Group's IPO, which would have been the biggest in history, and fining Ma's other company, Alibaba, record-high amounts of money.
However, expenses for Alibaba and Ant go beyond fines. Following the postponement of the initial public offering, Ant Group was forced to change its business strategy, scaling back operations in delicate economic sectors and avoiding direct competition with state institutions. As a result, Bloomberg reports that the company's valuation, which was estimated to reach $ 315 billion following the IPO, decreased to $ 78.5 billion.
source: bloomberg.com