Opinion | Sina, Alibaba resurrect tie-up talks
Sina's new tie-up with Alibaba could value Sina Weibo at around US$1.5 billion, and could pave the way for an accelerated IPO for Weibo if the pairing is successful

All that said, let's take a closer look at the latest headlines, which cite several unnamed sources confirming that the two sides have resumed their talks after negotiations collapsed late last year reportedly over Weibo's valuation. The reports say talks are now in the late stages, with Alibaba most likely to pay about US$500 million for a 15 to 20 per cent stake of Weibo. They say announcement of a final deal could come very soon, implying we could hear something in May.
The figures from the report would value Weibo at anywhere from US$2 billion to as much as US$4 billion, compared with Sina's own current market capitalisation of about $3.4 billion. So at the low end of that range, Weibo would still account for nearly 60 per cent of Sina's market value even though it only now contributes about 10 per cent of the company's revenue. I suspect that some of these leaked figures are probably a bit optimistic and are coming from Sina, and we could see Weibo ultimately valued at US$1.5 billion to perhaps as much as $2 billion in any upcoming deal.
These social networking services are huge headline-grabbers, as they can quickly sign up tens and even hundreds of millions of users, as evidenced by Weibo's explosive growth over the last four years and WeChat's over the last two. But while it's easy to sign up lots of subscribers, operators are finding it much more difficult to monetise those services that are usually offered for free - a problem also being faced by the original Facebook (Nasdaq: FB).