Economics
Alibaba Founders to Keep Control With Partnership Alternative
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If one-share-one-vote is the best ownership structure an investor can ask for, and having two classes of shares is worse, Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. will fall somewhere in between.
The Chinese company, expected to file soon for a U.S. initial public offering, wants to give a group of insiders the exclusive right to nominate a majority of the board. Unlike the dual-class model used by companies from Zynga Inc. and Groupon Inc. to New York Times Co. and Manchester United Plc -- where a minority shareholder wields disproportionate voting power -- Alibaba plans to give all shares otherwise equal weight.