SoftBank & Alibaba: The $20 Million Bet That Built a $200 Billion Empire
How Masayoshi Son’s instinctive deal with Jack Ma became SoftBank’s defining investment—and a blessing, a curse, and a benchmark Masa would chase for decades.
The Alibaba story begins with Masa meeting Jack Ma during a "speed-dating" session for Chinese entrepreneurs arranged by SoftBank's new venture capital fund in China on October 31, 1999, in Beijing. Ma, described as an elfin figure, stood out because he spoke the best English. He presented his business, Alibaba, as an electronic Yellow Pages matching bu…
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