Press Clippings: In the pre-digital age, the primary method for marketing films was the film poster. As with all things creative in Hollywood, there were masters of the art of producing the film poster. Two of the very best who ever worked in the medium were Drew Struzan and Bob Peak. I never had the chance to meet Drew Struzan but I met Bob Peak a couple of decades ago at his studio in Connecticutt–he was a noted Ferrari enthusiast and I was an un-noted Ferrari enthusiast. We had a lot to talk about and not much of it was about cars or Ferraris. The L.A. Times produced a wonderful piece on Bob Peak and Drew Struzan this year. It’s well worth your time and it will bring back some memories.
SECOND THOUGHTS
POST RACE DEBRIEF: MOSPORT
Risi Competizione Gets Back on Track (and Podium).
Best to start a review of this year’s Mosport race by taking a glance in the rearview mirror. In 2010, the Grand Prix of Mosport was held over the August 29th weekend. It was the most important race of the year for Risi Competizione as the team entered the race weekend with a very real chance at winning one more ALMS championship in the final year of the 430GT era. But-they had to do well at Mosport and then win at Petit Le Mans in order to bring home another title.
The 2010 race weekend did not start out on a terrific note, despite the fact that the two 430GTs were very, very quick. First, Risi Comp driver Pierre Kaffer had a major off and wiped out the front end of his 430; the accident sidelined both Kaffer and the Ferrari for the weekend. Then, Jaime Melo, who was paired with Gianmaria Bruni in the No. 62 Ferrari caught a vicious stomach virus and was unable to drive. This resulted in Toni Vilander, who had been paired with Kaffer in the No. 63 Ferrari 430GT, moving up to the No. 62 car to share duties with Bruni; but it also put the car at the rear of the grid (driver substitution).
After amazing drives on the part of both Vilander and Bruni, the Ferrari pulled into second place and was closing on the leading Porsche from Flying Lizard when the 2010 race was stopped with approximately 30 minutes to go after one of the GTC cars took a sudden and rather severe liking to the ARMCO barrier at Moss Corner (turn 5a/5b) upon high speed contact and totally and completely demolished it, leaving drivers defenseless against an on-track incident or off.
No ARMCO. No Go, said ALMS.
The Red Flag was pulled out and shown to the thundering herd and the race was over. But Risi Comp picked up a Second, a very good showing considering the way the weekend started. That podium position was key because it put the team in contention for the ALMS championship going into the last race of the season, the 10 hours plus/minus Petit Le Mans. But that was 2010.
Life and racing refuse to stand still and in 2011, many things had changed as the big red transporters from Risi Competizione pulled into the paddock for this year’s running of the Grand Prix of Mosport. For one thing, the date of the race was now advanced from August(2010) to July (2011). And another big change: ALMS divested itself of ownership of the Mosport track. Actually, it was Panoz Motor Sports Group, the entity controlling ALMS, which sold the track to a group of Canadian owners, more precisely Canadian Motorsports Ventures, Ltd., whose ownership is composed of well-regard industry professionals, including driver Ron Fellows, real-estate developer Carlo Fidani, and Al Boughton, a classic car enthusiast and race enthusiast. Good luck to all of you in your new venture but could this downsizing from Panoz/ALMS signify something else?
Also new at Mosport this year was the car Risi Competizione is campaigning, the high-potential Ferrari 458GT, AKA the 458 Italia, AKA F458 Italia GT. This car has shown brilliant bursts of speed and run at the front of the pack, but it’s the first year and the development curve is tres steep. At Sebring, Risi Comp’s 458 went out after 10 hours with electrical issues. At Long Beach, the team bounced back and got on the podium with a 3rd place finish after another dramatic 100 minutes of fun amongst the barriers. After the Le Mans break, the boys were back at it, in Lime Rock, but again the team had a rough outing, with electrical/electronic issues taking the car out of contention. Three races, two DNFs and one very very disappointed team.
The goal at Mosport was simple: finish. And, importantly, finish in the money.
No reason not to believe it couldn’t be done. Jaime Melo has won a couple of times at Mosport and Vilander brought home a second last year. Mosport is a track that favors, very slightly, the Ferrari, with big sweeping curves, a brutal 180 degree double apex corner (the Moss Corner), and a very long straight to wind ‘em up on. It’s a quick one. The track rewards smooth drivers and punishes the un-smooth.
For 2011 at Mosport, Risi Competizione brought in Toni Vilander and Jaime Melo along with the constantly developing 458, which had undergone a nose to tail review after Lime Rock. Development of a new car is composed of two parts: learning the car’s systems and improving those systems and performance through engineering development. It is pretty much the never-ending story.
While Risi Comp was in Year 1 of a new car development program, the usual suspects—BMW and Corvette—were deep into the second year of their GT programs. BMW was off to a splendid start to the year and the Corvettes were getting sharper and faster with each race. Also in the game–as always– was the Flying Lizard Porsche team with a pair of the competitively ageless Porsche 911 GT3 RSRs. In the points race, after Lime Rock it was BMW, Porsche and Chevrolet (Corvette) with Ferrari in fourth.
For only the fourth race of the season, Mosport was suddenly very critical for Risi Competizione’s overall hopes in 2011. Would the team be able to rise to the challenge?
The first practice session was blessedly non-eventful. At one point in the one hour session, Melo held the fastest time with a 1:18:385 but by the end of the session, the top three cars were BMW (No. 56), Porsche (No. 45) and BMW (No. 55) with the best time at 1:18.029 by Joey Hand in the No. 56 BMW M3 GT.
The second Saturday practice session brought out a slight reshuffling of the top three—Porsche (Bergmeister for Flying Lizard in No 45), BMW (Mueller for BMW in No. 56 and….Vilander for Risi Competizione in third. The three cars were separated by about two-tenths of a second. Dat’s close.
Qualifying was satisfying if not surprising. The Risi Comp No. 62 Ferrari qualified in fifth, with Vilander handling the duties. First in class was the Mueller/Hand No. 56 BMW (Dirk Mueller doing the honors) followed by the No. 55 Auberlen/Werner BMW, then Bergmeister and Long in the No. 45 Porsche. Sharp and Van Overbeek in the No. 01 EMS Ferrari 458 captured fourth. Top qualifying time was 1:17.085 and Risi Comp’s Q-Time was 1:17.543. Close but no cigar.
Unlike most ALMS races in America, Mosport runs on Sunday instead of Saturday and so at 2:57PM on July 24th, the drivers were told to start their engines and promptly at 3:00PM, the Green Flag dropped and the race was on. It was 85 degrees in the air and 108 on the track. For the first 30 minutes, it was a BMW/Porsche/BMW sandwich with few on course obstacles. Van Overbeek, in the No. 01 Ferrari 458 had a bit of a tangle with Tony Burgess in the Lola BO6/10 (LMP1, No. 12) and after a modest period of time stuck in the gravel, made it to the pits.
Approximately 44 minutes into the race Joey Hand’s BMW hit Toni Vilander’s Ferrari when Hand was exiting the pits, an uncharacteristic mistake from Joey, for which he would pay with a Stop and Go Penalty. Another penalty was handed out to the EMS No. 01 Ferrari 458 for entering the pits when they were closed to GT cars (a result of the previous off in the gravel trap) and so the car had to pit, shut down, and restart. Bummer, because they were actually running quite well but those kinds of things just ruin your race day.
An hour and 10 minutes into the race, the leaderboard started to look familiar to Risi Competizione fans when it was BMW, Corvette and the Risi Comp No. 62 running 1-2-3. Vilander had been driving a very well-paced but, even better, well-judged race and was now just three seconds off the lead.
With one hour and 43 minutes gone in the race, the top 3 in GT were BMW (Auberlen), Ferrari (Vilander), and Corvette (Gavin).
There was one hour to go. Could the Rosso Corso clad Ferrari bring home a podium position?
Vilander pitted for fuel, tires and a driver change and so the No. 62 Ferrari was turned over to Jaime Melo for the final act at Mosport.
The competition was having a tough day. Dirk Werner got tagged with a Stop and Go for avoidable contact (he hit Spencer Pumpelly in the No. 66 GTC Porsche) and while Dirk was sitting in Pit Lane, Jan Magnussen took over fist place in his No. 4 Corvette C6 ZR1.
The leaders are now Corvette, Ferrari, BMW with Werner now 14 seconds down on the leader with only 15 minutes left.
With just 4 minutes left, Melo had cut the gap to Magnussen to 2.201 seconds but was having difficulty with slower traffic.
A minute and change later, it was over, with Magnussen/Gavin taking the victory for the No. 4 Corvette C6 ZR1, Melo bringing the Risi Competizione Ferrari 458 Italia home to second position and B-Boys Auberlen/Werner picking off third in the No. 55 BMW M3GT.
The race was uncharacteristic for BMW because,they experienced a tough time with penalties and contact.
Mosport was more typical of what we expect from Risi Competizione because it was a race without incident, the car was fast, and the team was right there with a chance to win at the end. And it was a return to winning form for Corvette, now gathering some serious steam in the series. Congrats to all the competitors for a well-run race and thanks for the memories.
Next up: Mid-Oh.
Einstein on God
“I am convinced that God does not play dice….”
CHROME
Annals of IP: One of the most interesting and useful products available today is the Chromebook, a very streamlined type of laptop that uses the CHROME operating system created by Google (when it was still Google…don’t which department it’s in now that ALPHABET is up and running). The idea behind the product is very, very simple: a very compact (about the size of the average magazine), thin, very light notebook computer (with good battery life) that pulls all of it’s programs down from the internet (cloud) and naturally, stores everything you produce in the cloud as well. The basic software you need to be productive: word processing, spreadsheet, mail program, (and a direct mail program from MailChimP)etc..is included in the price of the unit, which sells for around $200 give or take a few bucks (by comparison, a 160GB iPod went for over $250 when it was still in production).
The great thing about the Chromebook is what it doesn’t have: no bloatware, no programs you will never use, no overly complicated interface, no odd interfaces. On the Acer Chromebook for instance, the ports include one for power, an Ethernet port, 3 USB ports,a headphone port, and an external monitor port. Simple. Everything you really need( the 3 USB ports are great) and nothing you don’t. If you’ve every used a cell phone or a laptop, you’ll be up and running in minutes. The battery life is very good (I get 3 hours plus on mine and it charges in a blink), it’s sturdy, has a good screen, and is very, very portable.
But..and this is key..you must have internet access for it to work. I found out the hard way when I met a friend for lunch and wanted to show him a project I was working on and discovered–too late–that I I had picked a restaurant without wi-fi. Acer, HP, Samsung, ASUS,Toshiba, Dell and a host of others all make very nice Chromebooks–they’re all basically “same spec” and so the only differences between manufacturers is the industrial design of the unit itself and RAM specs–and competition is improving the breed. Some units (HP), now have SSD drives to supplement the Chomedrive. Otherwise, you store on Google Drive. It turns on and off in a flash. I’ve got one of the first ACER models (my son Philip worked on the Chromebook launch for Google and turned me on to the advantages of this very portable computer) but I also like the HP. A Chromebook is perfect for travel, writing dispatches on the road, and checking email. I also have one that I leave in the guest rooms of my lake house so that friends can check their email, surf the internet, and do a little writing if they wish. It’s perfect for that.
If you can be brutally honest with what your computing/IP/interconnect needs are…and don’t mind being a little bit of a trailblazer…you might find that the Chromebook is perfect for 80% of your computer needs. Or..look at it this way..you could buy 9 Chromebooks for the cost of one Macbook. Click this link to get an update on the best Chromebooks of 2016.
Sometimes the simple tool is the one to select.
Chromebook: a new way to connect and work. Check one out.
The Fine Print: Photo courtesy Google. All rights reserved.
Prince Royce: Stand By Me
The Hunt For New Music: Prince Royce is probably new to you. He should not be. He’s a crossover Spanish language singer with a great voice and terrific production values. One way to judge a new talent is to hear them perform something that someone else has performed before, something you know well. With that in mind, here’s Prince Royce’s version of Stand By Me , the Ben E. King classic, sung in both Spanish and English. Give it a listen. It’ll get you moving.
Turning Points
Paying Attention: A modern F1 car is amazingly intricate, advanced, and complicated. Designed to a specification (a “formula”) dictated by the F.I.A., (Fédération Internationale de L’Automobile, the ruling/sanctioning body for most international racing) that all who hope to participate in the F1 series have to adhere to (and…it’s not easy to have your team/entry accepted…the best way to think about joining the F1 series to think about of it as the equivalent of being accepted into the Royal Family of Automobile Racing, i.e. not easy and you can’t just marry in).
The technology in the series is astounding and–so goes the common thought–ultimately works it way down to the daily driver that fills the roads of the world. Managing all of this technology requires massive computing power which is controlled when the car is on the track by the driver, who makes selections, adjustments, and commands via a steering wheel that is actually a very sophisticated computer. F1 cars typically have two steering wheels, one a purely mechanical one designed to be used then the car is being transported or moved around the paddock; the other is the brains of the car, installed only when the car is to be on the track in racing or testing, and that one is pretty much kept under lock and key–you don’t want to lose it because the car will not operate without it and a replacement (if available) is going to be hundreds of thousands of dollars. WIRED magazine did a very nice piece on the modern F1 steering wheel and, if you have any affection at all for open wheel racing, you should give it a read.
Also, if you want deep background on F1 Technology, the very best book currently available is Ferrari Formula 1 an in-depth look at the world’s most glamorous auto racing team and technology from inside the Scuderia; Ferrari allowed the writer/photographer team(Peter Wright, a former Lotus F1 Team Engineer was the writer) unprecedented access but with a twist: they couldn’t publish the book, which covers the 2000 model Ferrari F1 car, for two years after the access period to allow the technology described in such great detail to become obsolete (that’s how fast F1 changes).
Mosport GT thriller gives Risi best result of the season
The Pennzoil-supported Risi Competizione Ferrari 458 Italia GTC of Jaime Melo and Toni Vilander took second place in an extremely hotly-contested GT battle in today’s Grand Prix of Mosport, round four of the 2011 American Le Mans Series. It is the Houston-based team’s best finish of the season and their second podium in 2011, and the entire event presented a great spectacle for the large number of Ferrari of Ontario guests watching. The GT race was won by the Nr.4 Corvette of Oliver Gavin and Jan Magnussen.
With Toni Vilander taking the green flag from fifth place, and the 31-strong field starting under hot and sunny conditions, the first 39 minutes of the 2 hour 45 minute race were run exactly as the manufacturer-led entries had started from the grid, with no changes for position within the top eight in class.
The event’s only full course yellow caution period shook up the order somewhat, not least because the red Ferrari had unwarranted contact from the leading BMW at pit exit. A penalty for avoidable contact for the BMW, plus slick work in the first of two great pit stops from the Risi crew, saw Vilander make good use of his new Michelin tires and start a climb through the field. At just after the hour mark, there was only 1.4 seconds separating the top four in class, with the Ferrari moving into third place after the No.45 Flying Lizard Porsche was knocked into a spin.
The Ferrari’s second stop saw lightning work from the Risi crew which allowed Jaime Melo, now at the wheel of the F458, to leapfrog the No. 4 Corvette into second place. The two-time Mosport winner then proceeded to carve his way into the deficit between himself and the leading BMW, reducing the gap to less than two seconds before his tires began to suffer. Slower traffic helped the Corvette find a way past Melo and it looked as though the team and drivers would have to be content with a third place finish.
The race Gods were smiling down on the Houston-based team though and, when the No. 55 BMW was given a penalty for avoidable contact with a GTC Porsche, Melo regained second place. He challenged Magnussen hard towards the closing stages of the race, but wasn’t able to make enough headway in the time available to secure victory.
Toni Vilander said after the race: “There’s always a little bit of tension when you start the race but I tried to take it easy and keep out of trouble. Our initial strategy with the tires wasn’t perfect but once we’d made a change for my second stint, things were better. From here on we will work hard – we still have new things to come for Mid Ohio, and we’re still chasing a perfect balance that suits both of us. It’s a positive result today and we’ll keep going in the same direction.”
Jaime Melo echoed his team mate’s sentiments: “It’s definitely a good result for the team and Ferrari and this is our second podium finish. We need to work a bit harder to make the car easier for both of us to drive. Toni did a great job once again and unfortunately I couldn’t challenge for a better result because of traffic but that’s the same for everybody. I’m a bit disappointed with second place, to be honest, but we’re now looking forward to Mid Ohio.
“Our right side tires were going off pretty quickly towards the end, but I think we’ve learned something from this race and we’ll take that forward for the future.”
POST RACE DEBRIEF: LIME ROCK 2011
“Houston, we have a problem”—
Jim Lovell (as played by Tom Hanks) in the movie, Apollo 13
Only seems appropriate to kick-start the Lime Rock 2011 Debrief with a quote from Apollo 13, since this month, July, is full of tributes (both right and wrong) to the end of America/NASA’s space shuttle program. When STS-135 made a night landing at Kennedy Space Center on Thursday, 21 July 2011, that was el finito and double-adioski for the U.S. space shuttle program, now grounded forever.
In the future, when we want to make that escape-from-gravity run to the ISS (International Space Station, we will be hitching a ride with our Cosmonaut comrades on Russia’s SOYEZ space vehicle, our own astronauts being de-horsed. Stranger things have happened in the world of space exploration but not recently.
Seems difficult to believe now.
A magnificent space program dismantled and there’s not necessarily a new one in sight (although much has been made of the Air Force’s super-secret X37B robotic space plane which is fancy to be sure but manned by robots or at least is robotically controlled; don’t expect much in the way of snappy dialogue under pressure from that chipset). With the end of the space program—do you really think we learned all we need to know and so it’s time to shut it down—the economy in certain parts of Florida, Alabama, and Houston will take a big punch. That wheezing sound you hear is the life going out of
south coastal Florida’s space and tourist industry.
But that’s progress. Do something incredible and do it well enough and people will quit paying attention and dropping their jaw because you make it look easy and the next thing you know your congressional budget disappears faster than Donuts at a Weight Watchers convention.
The “Houston, we have a problem” line is one of the best in history because it’s an obvious understatement, coming as it does when Apollo 13 is booking it for the moon and suffers an Oxygen tank rupture which puts the entire mission and the lives of the crewmen (James A. Lovell, Jack Swigert, and Fred W. Haise) in jeopardy.
With massive effort and some slick technological maneuvering, the three managed to turn it all around and arrive safely back on earth creating one of space exploration’s first major legends in the process.
For this year’s meeting at Lime Rock Park, Apollo 13 will prove to be the perfect allegory. A high tech, high risk mission aborted and blunted by fate, then the crew reworks the craft to save the day.
It’s not been easy for us at Lime Rock—at least during my time with the team—and rather than break form and have some good luck for a change, Lime Rock delivered, again, a very nasty series of jabs that prematurely ended another race weekend for the Rosso Corso clad team, cars and gear of Risi Competizione.
Coming into Lime Rock, hopes were modestly elevated. The team had a rather tremendous outing at the Long Beach Grand Prix, despite a rather difficult start(lost the wing in qualifying and so recorded no good flying lap, necessitating a trip to the rear of the grid), the drivers and team worked very hard and managed to punch the new Ferrari 458 onto the podium, snagging a third. It would be impolite not to mention that Extreme Speed Motorsports/Tequila Patron was kind enough to loan to Risi Competizione one of their spare 458 wings so that we could compete in the race, another in a series of very fine and classy acts of sportsmanship that makes us proud to say they also run Ferrari 458s. Thank you to Scott Sharp, Ed Brown and their group.
With the Long Beach results in hand, expectations were hopeful-but-cautious for Lime Rock. The new Risi Competizione tandem of Jaime Melo and Toni Vilander have proven to be tres quick and so despite a rather dismal history at Lime Rock, the mood in the pits was “maybe this is the year”.
The first practice certainly seemed to back up that feeling. The car turned a 51.813, which was quick enough for third place in the GT category and the cqr really wasn’t fully sorted, but just starting to test a series of adjustments, tweeks, and mods that had been planned for Lime Rock. First in class went to the No. 56 BMW(Mueller/Hand) at 51.330 and second was another BMW, No. 55 (Wener/Auberlen). BMW is on a tear this year—their last in ALMS—and it’s showing on the track.
The second practice did not go quite as well. With ten minutes to go in the one hour session, the left rear of Vilander’s Ferrari had contact with the right front of Bill Auberlen’s No. 55 BMW at Turn 4. At that point, both cars went off into the grass, with Vilander drawing the short straw and hitting the fence, damaging the right front as well as the left rear of the car. Auberlen’s car had no such damage (or luck) and continued back to the pits for a good checkover.
Risi Comp Team Manager Dave Sims called it for the press: “ There was some repairable chassis damage and we’ll replace the left rear suspension, right front cooling ducts, front splitter and floor. We plan to be out for warmup tomorrow but will start the race from the back of the grid because we didn’t set a qualifying time”.
And so there it went: another promising start to the race weekend pushed aside by luck and fate.
What Sims described in a few sentences would take the rest of the day and most of the night to fix, but the Risi Comp techs went to work and the car appeared right on time for the morning warmup on Saturday, July 9th, putting up a fourth-in-class time of 52.170. Obviously, it was fixed and the fixed worked.
Asked about the car, Jaime Melo just said “Everything is fine and it feels great”.
The flag dropped at 2:05PM for the two hour and 45 minute race and it didn’t take long for things to develop on the extremely tight Lime Rock track. Twenty minutes into the race, Ed Brown in the No. 02 Ferrari 458 GT was turned around by a prototype and managed to bag the two Corvettes (No. 4 and No. 3) in the process. All cars ended up in the pits where they had a rather long visit. Next, Werner’s No. 55 BMW came into the pits to have the entire front end replaced due to extensive damage.
Starting from the back of the grid doesn’t have too many advantages, but one of them is avoiding the hazardous crowding that always takes place in the front at a track like Lime Rock. To everyone’s surprise but the most astute observers, at 44 minutes into the race, Toni Vilander in the No. 62 Risi Competizione F458GT had moved into third place. From last on the grid. The car can go and the boy can drive.
But would it last.
Twelve minutes later, Vilander pulled into the pits for tires, fuel, and a driver change (Vilander out/Melo in). Race fans were just settling in to see how Jaime Melo was going to handle the last one hour and 45 minutes of the race when, at 3:21 PM, just 22 minutes after he was handed the car by Vilander, Melo was back in the pits complaining of engine misfire. Out came the laptop computer, in went the diagnosis connection and then….the car went behind the wall, with one hour and thirty minutes gone in the race and another hour and 15 minutes to go. Any such activity at a track as short as Lime Rock is difficult to over come.
“Houston, we have a problem”.
Melo brought the car back out on the track about 20 minutes later but it was not to be because just a lap or so later he returned to the pits, the car went behind the wall and Lime Rock 2011 was over for the Risi Competizione No. 62. The car was officially retired two hours and 34 minutes into the race with unspecified issues, and credited with 79 laps completed (the winner completed 176).
Joey Hand and Dirk Mueller won the GT class in their No. 56 BMW E92 M3; Patrick Long and Jorge Bergmeister returned to the podium in second place in their Flying Lizard Porsche 911 GT3 RSR and—surprise—David Murry and Anthony Lazzaro (a Risi Comp alum) took third in the Doran Ford GT/Elan Power crowd favorite. Well done all.
So, one third of the season gone and much has been learned.
Perhaps Mosport—a high speed track where Risi Competizione has had very good success—will see the team return to the top of podium. The Risi Competizione F458GT Ferrari has been competitive in every race this year but first year development issues have stunted podium progress.Personally, I sense a breakthrough race coming and the track for breakthrough is right in front of us: Mosport.
See you there.
Alibaba ClickPak
Press Clippings: The biggest tech IPO of the year is coming–maybe the biggest tech IPO of all time. Best to be informed now, because there may not be a chance to buy on the dip as with Facebook and Twitter. Below, required background reading on a new-to-America company that you may not have heard of before, but that you will be hearing a lot about in the future, all conveniently gathered up in one of our legendary “ClickPaks”….
Beginner’s Guide to Alibaba Group (Source: Wikipedia)
See Alibaba For Yourself (Source: Alibaba dot com)
The Beginnings of Alibaba (Source: Bloomberg.com)
The Alibaba Bet (Source: New York Times)
The Alibaba IPO (Source: Reuters)
Will Alibaba Get Too Big (Source: Bloomberg)
Alibaba Group Mergers (Source: Reuters)
How To Make A Few Billion on Alibaba (Source: Bloomberg)
Will Alibaba Be The Godzilla of IPOs?
Press Clippings: Unless you are paying zero attention to the stock market, technology, the internet, massive merchandising trends, and the coming showdown between Amazon dot com and Alibaba dot com (and if you’re reading this piece, you are not in the zero attention category), you know two things: Alibaba, China’s online shopping behemoth is going to take an IPO in the US very, very soon and, two, it’s going to be big. Very big. Very, very big. A lot of people have mucho dinero riding on the upcoming public offering of a new type of global enterprise, not the the least being Yahoo, which is looking pretty smart because it owns a 40% stake (Jerry Yang, you are still one of the all- time smart people in the Internet age). A definition: Alibaba sells stuff…lots of it. Enough to account for 70% of the package shipments in China–a country with a lot of package shipments. Get primed for this upcoming financial/retailing event by being totally informed and up to speed on what promises to be the IPO of the year. Read all about it, in this excellent, Cliff’s notes version of the Alibaba story from Bloomberg.
