Altaba Inc (AABA)

[DocLevi]

Okay another try at this link, China restricts...

The Jack Ma Way
At Alibaba, the Founder Is Squarely in Charge
By DAVID BARBOZA
SEPT. 6, 2014
....But power was still largely concentrated in Mr. Ma’s hands. He and his top deputy, Mr. Tsai, held two of the company’s four board seats. Mr. Ma also controlled the underlying companies that Alibaba used to operate in China.

China restricts foreign investment in industries considered sensitive, like the Internet. To avoid running into a problem, Mr. Ma set up an offshore holding company in the Cayman Islands. Foreign investors buy shares in the offshore entity and are contractually entitled to the profit. But most of Alibaba’s assets are actually owned by Mr. Ma and another co-founder, Simon Xie.

The ownership structure — known as the variable interest entity — is common among Chinese Internet companies. But it holds risks for shareholders, because it may leave them without the usual protections. (In June a United States government commission warned Americans about investing in Chinese companies using the complex V.I.E. structure, saying in a report to Congress that “a major risk is that the Chinese shareholder of the V.I.E. will steal the entity, ignoring the legal arrangements on which the system is based.”)

Mr. Ma often had the final say in strategy. Just as Alibaba was beginning to earn money in 2002, Mr. Ma proposed setting up a consumer-oriented site to compete with eBay. Most of his top executives opposed the idea, since eBay was a formidable company and its Chinese partner already had a huge share of the China market....
© 2014 The New York Times Company

I assume we're at the honesty of Mr. Ma as to whether BABA is safe to hold.

Thus the reason I think a buyout only would happens before IPO if other company but it'll have to be Softbank where Mr. Son is friends with Ma. I assume the good relationship Yahoo has its safe as is, (a reason buyout could occur after IPO if they want Yahoo).