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In China, Jack Ma is one of the most important celebrities in the country, a business leader with the same dignity as Jeff Bezos or Bill Gates of Amazon.
Therefore, the latest rumors about him are even more remarkable. For just over two months, Ma has not been seen in public, several media outlets, including the respected Financial Times, report. For example, Ma would have been a member of the jury on a television program, “Africa’s Business Heroes” when the final took place at the end of November.
No pictures
In the show, which involves several African businessmen participating and competing for just over a million dollars, Ma has been considered the high profile of the jury, but photos of him were removed from the show’s website and he did not appear in the trailers. of the program. Once the final was decided, Ma was replaced by another employee from his company Alibaba.
All of this now leads to speculation that the silence around Ma may be linked to controversies surrounding his company and the Chinese communist regime. Ma, who made his fortune through e-commerce site Alibaba, was surprisingly outspoken during the fall and criticized the Chinese government. Among other things, he called Chinese banks “outdated pawn shops.” This happened shortly before the planned listing of Alibaba’s payment services company, Ant Group, was halted. The list, which was intended to be the largest in the world, worth just over SEK 300 billion, is still frozen, while Chinese authorities are now scrutinizing Alibaba for what is suspected to be a position of monopoly.
Reduced wealth
All of this has caused Jack Mas’s fortune to plummet as Alibaba’s share price rises. Over the past month, stocks fell just over twelve percent and Ma, previously China’s richest person, has now slumped to fourth after more than $ 12 billion of his fortune disappeared in the last few months. last two months.
Regarding his own alleged disappearance, no more detailed answer is given than that an Alibaba employee in a comment to the Financial Times writes that it is a “scheduled conflict” that Jack Ma could not be on the television show. .
Tobias Österberg / TT
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