Alibaba Overtakes Facebook as Fifth-Biggest US-Listed Tech Firm Amid Election Scandal

XU WEI

(Yicai Global) Nov. 26 — Chinese tech behemoth Alibaba Group Holding surpassed Facebook to become the fifth-most valuable listed tech company in the US as the social media company’s stock faces pressures from a scandal related to the vote that gave US President Donald Trump his political power.

Alibaba’s [NYSE: BABA] stock rose 0.62 percent to close at USD150.33 on Nov. 23, which meant that the company reached a market valuation of USD382.7 billion. Facebook’s [NASDAQ: FB] share fell 2.29 percent to USD131.73 at the close, which implied a valuation of USD382 billion.

Facebook’s stock started a sharp decline after the New York Times reported on Nov. 14 that the California-based firm knew about Russian meddling with the US presidential election in 2016 but withdrew from investigating. Facebook’s security chief Alex Stamos told the company board that the staff failed to contain the “Russian infestation,” which prompted the board to interview Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg and founder Mark Zuckerberg about the case, the report added.

Facebooks’ stock has slid 9 percent so far from the value of USD143.85 at the close on Nov. 15.

Alibaba logged a 54 percent increase in revenues to CNY85.1 billion (USD12.4 billion) in the quarter ending September, the Hangzhou-based firm’s earnings report shows. The growth, which was slower than expected, was spurred by cloud computing, core commerce including shopping platforms Taobao and Tmall, as well as digital entertainment.

Editor: Emmi Laine