, an Internet conglomerate that challenges Alibaba on almost every front, recently acquired a 15 percent stake in JD. That deal will help JD gain access to hundreds of millions of users via Tencent's mobile messaging apps and QQ, an area that's Alibaba's Achilles' heel.
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According to an arrangement detailed in the prospectus, the board of directors can't vote on anything unless Liu is present.
At Alibaba, a group of founders and senior executives retain the right to nominate board members, despite owning a smaller percentage of company shares, he noted.
Hong said that either arrangement is unlikely to have a negative impact on the companies' market valuations, since Nasdaq accepts dual-class shareholding structures. In addition, the appetite for Chinese technology stocks has recovered after a series of accounting scandals.
But The Wall Street Journal cited a recent survey of 54 global investors, two-thirds of whom said they would apply a discount to Alibaba's shares to account for the insiders' nomination rights, with an average discount of 19 percent.
JD said it expected to raise about $1.5 billion via the IPO, with pricing due on Wednesday.