银湖合伙基金（Silver Lake Partners）上周四宣布，将联手俄罗斯投资机构数码天空科技（DST Capital）、云峰基金（Yunfeng Capital）和阿里巴巴（Alibaba）股东淡马锡对中国电子商务巨头阿里巴巴集团（Alibaba Group）投资16亿美元。这笔交易旨在向阿里巴巴员工提供流动性，根据交易，阿里巴巴整个公司目前的估值约320亿美元。

    更重要的是，银湖投资阿里巴巴意味着该集团整体上市可能是猴年马月的事了。阿里巴巴董事长马云也参与了银湖的这项交易。今年早些时候他曾表示，母公司可能会上市。不过银湖投资阿里巴巴后，该集团整体上市的动力似乎不复存在了，因为阿里巴巴寻求公开上市不是为了资金，而是为了股票的流动性。毫无疑问，银湖及其合伙投资人也会有需要流动性的一天，但那可能是5到6年以后的事情了。真到了那个时候，他们也可以通过向第三方或阿里巴巴出售股份全身而退。

    此外，银湖和DST公司对阿里巴巴进行要约收购后，将不会有任何表决权，因为这不符合中国外资所有权管理的相关规定。

    硬币的另一面则是雅虎（Yahoo），2005年它以10亿美元收购了阿里巴巴40%的股权。有报道称，银湖一直在考虑收购雅虎，但如果雅虎持有的阿里巴巴股份不能同时出售（根据当时签订的协议条款，阿里巴巴对雅虎持有的股份有优先认购权），银湖不可能筹得足够的资金完成对雅虎的收购。

    消息人士称，上周的这笔交易已经酝酿了好几个月，丝毫未受到可能收购雅虎一事的影响。该消息人士说，“游说投资人大手笔投资来推动另一个八字还没一撇的交易是不负责的，同时也违反了信托责任。”

    因此，银湖的阿里巴巴项目时间表是根据预期内部回报率确定的，而不是雅虎。但如果我们从另外一个角度来看：银湖的雅虎项目组是否受到了阿里巴巴的影响？银湖对阿里巴巴这笔投资早已知情，或许正因为如此他们才会比其它投资者更有信心找出方案，确保雅虎将出售手头的阿里巴巴股权。收购Skype是银湖截至目前完成的最大一个项目，但Skype和雅虎显然不是同一个重量级的，因此收购雅虎之路依旧漫长，但现在的可能性相比以前却提高了很多。

    Silver Lake Partners announced today that it is leading a $1.6 billion investment in Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Group, alongside DST Capital, Yunfeng Capital and existing Alibaba shareholder Temasek. The deal is designed as a tender offer to provide liquidity for Alibaba employees, and values the company at approximately $32 billion.

    More importantly, it seems to signal that an Alibaba Group IPO is a long ways off. Chairman Jack Ma, who participated with the investor group, suggested earlier this year that an IPO for the unlisted parent company was possible. But this deal seems to have removed the impetus for such a transaction, since Alibaba would have accessed the public markets for liquidity rather than capital. Silver Lake and its investment partners will no doubt need liquidity of their own one day, but that could mean five or six years from now. And, even at that late date, their exit could come via a share sale, either to a third-party or to the company itself.

    Moreover, Silver Lake and DST will not have any voting rights at Alibaba following the tender, in order to comply with China's foreign ownership rules.

    The flip side of this coin is Yahoo (YHOO), which acquired a 40% stake in Alibaba in 2005 for just $1 billion. Silver Lake reportedly has been considering an acquisition offer for Yahoo, which would be financially impossible were Yahoo's Alibaba position not simultaneously divested (Alibaba has first dibs, per terms of the original agreement).

    Sources familiar with the situation say that today's deal has been in the works for months, and that it was not at all affected by the prospect of a Yahoo bid. "It would be irresponsible, and arguably a breach of fiduciary duty, to ask investors for hundreds of millions of dollars to help facilitate another deal that may or may not happen," one source said.

    So Silver Lake's Alibaba deal time was driven by prospective IRR, not Yahoo. But what if we look at it from the other direction: Is Silver Lake's Yahoo deal team affected by Alibaba? Silver Lake has known about the burgeoning Alibaba relationship for a while, which perhaps makes them more confident than are other suitors that they could work out a divestiture. The whole thing still remains a long-shot -- Silver Lake's largest-ever deal was Skype, which was tiny compared to Yahoo -- but perhaps a bit more possible today than it was yesterday…