Alibaba vs Morgan Stanley: Founders, CEOs and History

Company facts

Founders

CEOs and their tenures

Timeline: Alibaba and Morgan Stanley side by side

1. 1935Morgan Stanley

   Morgan Stanley Founded

   Henry S. Morgan and Harold Stanley officially launch the top investment bank following the historic Glass-Steagall split.

2. 1996Morgan Stanley

   Acquired Van Kampen American Capital

   Morgan Stanley acquired Van Kampen American Capital in 1996.

3. 1997Morgan Stanley

   Merged with Dean Witter Discover & Co

   Morgan Stanley merged with Dean Witter Discover & Co in February 1997.

4. 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.

5. 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.

6. 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.

7. 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.

8. 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.

9. 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.

10. 2008Morgan Stanley

    Bank Holding Company Conversion

    Facing total catastrophic collapse, the firm converts into a traditional bank holding company to survive the global financial crisis.

11. 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.

12. 2009Morgan Stanley

    The Smith Barney Acquisition

    then-CEO James Gorman masterminds the acquisition of Smith Barney, instantly creating a dominant retail wealth management leader.

13. 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.

14. 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.

15. 2018Morgan Stanley

    Acquired Mesa West

    Morgan Stanley acquired Mesa West in March 2018.

16. 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.

17. 2020Morgan Stanley

    E*TRADE Acquisition

    Morgan Stanley dominates the self-directed brokerage market by acquiring E*TRADE for $13 billion.

18. 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.

19. 2021Morgan Stanley

    Acquired Eaton Vance

    Morgan Stanley acquired Eaton Vance for $7 billion. Morgan Stanley acquired Eaton Vance for about $7B, completed in March 2021, adding Parametric, Calvert, and Atlanta Capital.

20. 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…

21. 2024Morgan Stanley

    Ted Pick Appointed CEO

    Following a competitive internal succession, Ted Pick takes the helm to heavily drive the integration strategy.

Acquisitions

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