Case

we are going to discuss about the idea that companies are always trying to create "real economic value". Actually, the promise of consistent value generation in companies justify that investors turn themselves into one of firm's most important stakeholders, "shareholders", buying shares in companies. As we will discuss shareholders are always looking for value maximization of their investment, if they invest 1.000 euros in stock they want to turn them into 10.000, 100.000, 1.000.000, 10.000.000...the most, the better. Take a look to this piece of news concerning the profitability of investment in different companies

https://www.cnbc.com/2018/08/08/if-you-invested-1000-in-alibaba-when-it-went-public.html

If you remember we commented on Alibaba's new retail strategy at the very beginning of our seminar. Next week, we will discuss about Alibaba's IPO (Initial Public Offering) which was at the time the largest IPO in Wall Street and which took place on September 2014. I would like to discuss about value creation in this company and why do you think that it was - still is - a very attractive investment for shareholders.

CBS's 60 minutes devoted a portion of the program to introduce Jack Ma and Alibaba to the American public in 2014, so I would like to share the link to this portion of the program - it lasts around 10 minutes -. Please, get focused on Alibaba's potential sources of profitability

Question

Your thoughts about Alibaba's "sources of profitability" as well as its capability to "create value".

After everything you have read and watched regarding Alibababa. Would you invest money in buying Alibaba's shares? Why? Hint: Jack Ma retired in 2019 on his 55th birthday

Reference

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o8Owj4zIwOs

https://www.forbes.com/sites/isabeltogoh/2019/09/11/jack-ma-marks-alibaba-retirement-with-rockstar-party/#6a3f99621a62