eBay Inc (EBAY) In Danger of Alibaba Group Holding Ltd (BABA) Colonization: Reid Hoffman

eBay Inc (NASDAQ:EBAY)‘s worst days are not behind the e-commerce company as the company is going to be targeted by Alibaba Group Holding Ltd (NYSE:BABA), which is developing a large appetite for the Western markets. Reid Hoffman, who is co-founder and Executive Chairman of LinkedIn, the popular online job search platform, expressed  this opinion while on an interview with Bloomberg‘s Emily Chang.

Alibaba jack ma BABA

eBay Inc (NASDAQ:EBAY) was in the news lately after the company announced a management reshuffle, and the decision to spin off its online payment arm, PayPal next year. This news was accompanied by John Donahoe, eBay’s CEO, also stepping down next year. The most plausible explanation for this was because Donahoe wasted millions of dollars fighting off Carl Icahn, the activist investor, earlier this year who was proposing to split PayPal.

Trouble in eBay Inc (NASDAQ:EBAY)’s paradise, if one must call it that, could be stirring up very soon as Alibaba Group Holding Ltd (NYSE:BABA) flexes its muscle to pounce on its competitor. It seems a lot like a cat and mouse game at this point, except that the mouse might not be so shrewd in this particular case.

Hoffman warned that he has zero insider information on the matter, but from where he is sitting, the seas of online retailing do not look calm for eBay Inc (NASDAQ:EBAY) at all. He did not exactly specify how Alibaba Group Holding Ltd (NYSE:BABA) would go about this operation, but it doesn’t take a genius to figure that out. Alibaba has a reputation of more or less forcing the retailers on its sites to cut down prices to an extent that attracts customers in herds. After all it is the number of transactions that drive Alibaba’s top line.

“[…] I would actually think that Alibaba Group Holding Ltd (NYSE:BABA) would be more likely to go after the marketplace first then the payment companies. […] eBay Inc (NASDAQ:EBAY) first. If, and I get zero information, but if I look at how they are playing in terms of the global market, that might be the first step,” said Hoffman.

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