Alibaba vs Bristol-Myers Squibb: Founders, CEOs and History

Company facts

Founders

CEOs and their tenures

Timeline: Alibaba and Bristol-Myers Squibb side by side

1. 1858Bristol-Myers Squibb

   Edward Robinson Squibb opens his Brooklyn laboratory

   Navy surgeon Edward Robinson Squibb started making pure ether and other medicines in Brooklyn. The laboratory burned down on Christmas Eve 1858 and reopened in 1859 after local doctors and surgeons contributed $2,100.

2. 1887Bristol-Myers Squibb

   Bristol and Myers buy the Clinton Pharmaceutical Company

   Hamilton College graduates William McLaren Bristol and John Ripley Myers bought the Clinton Pharmaceutical Company of Clinton, New York, the business that became Bristol-Myers.

3. 1898Bristol-Myers Squibb

   Bristol, Myers and Company is named

   The founders renamed the business Bristol, Myers and Company in May 1898. After Myers died in 1899 it became Bristol-Myers, which built national brands in Sal Hepatica and, from 1901, Ipana toothpaste.

4. 1944Bristol-Myers Squibb

   Penicillin at wartime scale

   Squibb opened what was then the world's largest penicillin plant in New Brunswick, New Jersey. Bristol-Myers had bought Cheplin Biological Laboratories in East Syracuse, New York, in 1943 and converted it to penicillin for Allied forces.

5. 1989Bristol-Myers Squibb

   Bristol-Myers and Squibb merge

   Bristol-Myers and Squibb combined to form Bristol-Myers Squibb, uniting a consumer and pharmaceutical company with a research-led drugmaker.

6. 1999Alibaba

   Alibaba.com Launched

   Jack Ma and 17 co-founders launch Alibaba.com from a Hangzhou apartment with $60,000 in pooled savings, creating a B2B online marketplace connecting Chinese manufacturers with international buyers.

7. 1999Alibaba

   First Major Investment from SoftBank

   Masayoshi Son invests $20 million in Alibaba in a meeting reportedly lasting five minutes, alongside $5 million from Goldman Sachs, providing survival capital through the imminent dot-com crash.

8. 2001Alibaba

   Gold Supplier Program Launch

   Alibaba launches the Gold Supplier verified membership program at $3,000 per year, generating approximately $10 million in first-year revenue and proving the B2B marketplace model's commercial viability.

9. 2003Alibaba

   Taobao Launches to Challenge eBay

   Alibaba secretly develops and launches Taobao, a consumer-to-consumer marketplace offered free to both buyers and sellers, directly targeting eBay's Chinese market position. Within three years, Taobao surpasses eBay's Chinese market share.

10. 2004Alibaba

    Alipay Escrow Service Created

    Alibaba creates Alipay as a payment escrow solution for Taobao transactions, holding buyer funds until delivery confirmation before releasing payment to sellers solving the trust barrier that was limiting online commerce adoption.

11. 2006Bristol-Myers Squibb

    CEO Peter Dolan removed over the Plavix deal

    After an FBI raid in July 2006 over a patent settlement with generic maker Apotex on the blood thinner Plavix, the federal monitor urged the board to remove CEO Peter Dolan, who stepped down on September 12, 2006.

12. 2008Alibaba

    Tmall (Taobao Mall) Launch

    Alibaba launches a premium B2C marketplace initially called Taobao Mall (later rebranded Tmall), allowing established brands to operate official storefronts with higher trust credentials and enabling Alibaba to serve the premium consumer segment.

13. 2009Alibaba

    Alibaba Cloud Founded

    Alibaba launches Alibaba Cloud (Aliyun) as a cloud computing business, a decade ahead of many enterprise adoption cycles, positioning it to become Asia Pacific's dominant cloud provider.

14. 2009Bristol-Myers Squibb

    Medarex bought and Mead Johnson split off

    BMS bought Medarex, gaining Yervoy and a share of what became Opdivo, and split off Mead Johnson Nutrition in an exchange offer, completing its shift to a specialty biopharmaceutical company.

15. 2011Alibaba

    First Singles' Day Shopping Festival

    Alibaba transforms the informal 'Singles' Day' celebration on November 11 into a promotional shopping event on Taobao and Tmall, generating ~$130 million (936 million yuan) in sales a figure that would grow more than 100-fold in subsequent years.

16. 2011Bristol-Myers Squibb

    FDA approves Yervoy

    Yervoy (ipilimumab) became the first drug shown to extend overall survival in advanced melanoma, opening BMS's immuno-oncology franchise.

17. 2012Bristol-Myers Squibb

    FDA approves Eliquis

    The FDA approved Eliquis (apixaban), developed with Pfizer, in December 2012 for stroke prevention in non-valvular atrial fibrillation. It became BMS's largest product, with $14.4 billion of sales in 2025.

18. 2014Alibaba

    Record-Breaking NYSE IPO

    Alibaba completes its initial public offering on the New York Stock Exchange on September 19, 2014, raising $25 billion the largest IPO in US stock market history at that time at a valuation of approximately $168 billion.

19. 2014Bristol-Myers Squibb

    FDA approves Opdivo

    The FDA approved the PD-1 inhibitor Opdivo (nivolumab) in December 2014 for advanced melanoma. It reached $10.0 billion of sales in 2025.

20. 2019Alibaba

    Dual Listing on Hong Kong Stock Exchange

    Alibaba completes a secondary listing on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, raising an additional $13 billion and broadening its investor base among Asian institutional and retail investors, reducing dependence on US capital markets.

21. 2019Bristol-Myers Squibb

    Celgene acquisition closes

    BMS completed its $74 billion purchase of Celgene on November 20, 2019, adding Revlimid, Pomalyst, Reblozyl and CAR-T programs. Celgene sold Otezla to Amgen for $13.4 billion to win regulatory approval.

22. 2020Bristol-Myers Squibb

    MyoKardia deal and a GAAP loss

    BMS bought MyoKardia for $13.1 billion, gaining mavacamten (Camzyos). The deal's $11.4 billion in-process R&D charge pushed 2020 to a net loss despite $42.5 billion of revenue.

23. 2021Alibaba

    Record Antitrust Fine

    Chinese regulators impose a 18.23 billion yuan ($2.8 billion USD) antitrust fine on Alibaba following a months-long investigation into its 'choose one from two' exclusivity practices at the time, the largest antitrust fine in Chinese regulatory history.

24. 2022Bristol-Myers Squibb

    Turning Point bought as Revlimid generics arrive

    BMS completed the $4.1 billion purchase of Turning Point Therapeutics in August 2022 while volume-limited generic lenalidomide began eroding Revlimid, which had peaked at $12.8 billion in 2021.

25. 2023Alibaba

    Six-Business-Unit Restructuring Announced

    Alibaba announces its most significant organizational restructuring, dividing the company into six independent business units each with its own CEO and board: Taobao Tmall Group, Cloud Intelligence Group, Alibaba International Digital Commerce Group, Cainiao S…

26. 2023Bristol-Myers Squibb

    Chris Boerner becomes CEO

    Chris Boerner succeeded Giovanni Caforio as chief executive in November 2023 and became board chair on April 1, 2024. Weeks earlier BMS had agreed to buy Mirati, and in December it agreed to buy Karuna and RayzeBio.

27. 2024Bristol-Myers Squibb

    Karuna, Mirati and RayzeBio close; Cobenfy approved

    The three deals closed between January and March 2024. On September 26, 2024 the FDA approved Cobenfy, the first schizophrenia drug that targets muscarinic rather than dopamine receptors. The Karuna charge produced an $8.9 billion net loss for 2024.

28. 2025Bristol-Myers Squibb

    BioNTech partnership, Orbital deal and $48.2B revenue

    BMS agreed in June 2025 to co-develop BioNTech's bispecific BNT327 and in October 2025 to buy Orbital Therapeutics for $1.5 billion. Full-year revenue was $48.2 billion with the Growth Portfolio up 17 percent.

29. 2026Bristol-Myers Squibb

    Guidance raised and merger reports denied

    On July 30, 2026 BMS raised its 2026 revenue guidance to $49.0 to $50.0 billion after second-quarter revenue of $12.97 billion. In August, reports of AstraZeneca merger talks were followed by a senior source telling Reuters there were no discussions.

Acquisitions

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