The founder of Alibaba (NYSE: BABA), Jack Ma, has not made a public appearance in more than two months.
The Chinese billionaire was scheduled to make an appearance in November on his TV show, Africa’s Business Heroes, but failed to show. An Alibaba spokesperson called it a scheduling conflict, the Financial Times noted.
China has been cracking down on big business recently. The government is making moves to ensure private companies don’t grow too big and powerful.
China has a long history of harsh crackdowns on its dissidents.
The billionaire was scheduled to take another one of his companies, Ant, public in a deal worth $37 billion. The deal was greenlighted by Chinese regulators.
Ma has been openly critical of Chinese financial regulators, calling it an “old people club.” In his last known public appearance on October 24, he gave a controversial speech calling for reforms.
The week following his speech, approval for Ant’s IPO was withdrawn by the Chinese government.
In December, Alibaba became the target of an anti-monopoly investigation.
BABA stock, which is already well off of its October highs of $319, fell more than 3% after news of Ma’s disappearance broke. At writing the stock is trading near $225 per share.
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