A week before he was set to step down as chief executive of Alibaba, one of the world's largest e-commerce companies, Jack Ma was enjoying breakfast on an outdoor patio in Santa Monica, Calif. Worth an estimated $4.2 billion, the Chinese entrepreneur may grow even richer if the company he founded 14 years ago goes public. Philanthropy has brought him to California on this trip, but he has no intention of joining the famous billionaires' pledge and donating at least half his money to charity. 'This idea of giving your money out was not created by Gates and Buffett. It was created by the Communist Party in the 1950s!' he says with a laugh. 世界最大电子商务公司之一阿里巴巴集团(Alibaba)的首席执行长马云在他卸任的一周前，还在加州圣莫尼卡的一处户外露台上享受早餐。这位中国企业家的身家估计达42亿美元，如果他14年前创建的这家公司得以上市的话，他可能还会更加富有。他来到加州是为了公益活动，但他无意加入有名的亿万富翁宣言，将至少一半的财富捐给慈善事业。他笑着说，献出所有财富的点子不是盖茨和巴菲特想出来的，而是共产党在上世纪50年代创造的!
That wasn't the only thing that had Mr. Ma, 48, chuckling. Since he announced his transition to executive chairman in January─he handed over the reins Friday─he has stoked speculation about a potential Alibaba IPO. With an estimated value of about $60 billion, the company could be one of the year's hottest tech offerings if it makes the move. 这并非唯一一件让48岁的马云发出笑声的事。自从他今年1月宣布自己将转而担任公司的执行董事长以来，马云就引发了外界对阿里巴巴集团可能进行的首次公开募股(IPO)一事的各种猜测。马云已于上周五正式卸下阿里巴巴集团首席执行长之职。鉴于阿里巴巴集团的估值约为600亿美元，如果该公司启动首次公开募股程序，这有可能成为今年最热门的科技公司上市交易之一。
Mr. Ma has been on this road before. One of the group's 25 business units, Alibaba.com, an e-commerce platform for small businesses, went public on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange in 2007, before Mr. Ma took it private again last year. (The rest of the group's units, including Taobao, Tmall and Alipay, have never gone public.) The financial crisis hurt Alibaba.com, he says, and it needed major changes. Taking it private again laid the groundwork to take the whole group public one day. 马云旗下的公司以前就曾上过市。阿里巴巴集团旗下专门针对小企业的电子商务平台阿里巴巴(Alibaba.com)曾于2007年在香港证交所上市，去年马云对阿里巴巴再度实施了私有化。阿里巴巴是阿里巴巴集团的25家子公司之一，该集团的其他子公司，如淘宝、天猫以及支付宝等，则从未上过市。马云说，金融危机损害了阿里巴巴，它需要做出重大改变。对阿里巴巴再度实施私有化为阿里巴巴集团有朝一日整体上市奠定了基础。
Between bites of scrambled eggs and potatoes, Mr. Ma compared the possible IPO to a wedding. 'We are a company who has married and divorced, and we know what marriage means,' he says. 'We do not want a wedding reception─we want a happy marriage.' And the timing? 'I think we are ready,' he says. 马云在早餐上一边吃着摊鸡蛋和土豆，一边将阿里巴巴集团可能进行的首次公开募股比作一场婚礼。他说，我们是一家结过婚又离过婚的公司，我们知道结婚意味着什么;我们不想办婚宴，我们想要一桩幸福的婚姻。至于结婚的时机，马云说：我认为我们已经准备好了。
At the end of April, Alibaba bought an 18% stake in Weibo, China's answer to Twitter, for $586 million─another move seen as wedding preparation. 今年4月底，阿里巴巴集团斥资5.86亿美元收购了新浪微博18%的股份，外界认为这是阿里巴巴集团为其“婚礼”做的又一项准备。
Mr. Ma's successor, Jonathan Lu, moved up from his role as chief data officer after Mr. Ma put him through a series of positions─and what sounds like a corporate version of hazing. Mr. Ma says with a smirk, 'I pushed him in the fridge' (that is, he gave Mr. Lu a hard time). 'I realized early this year he was ready.' 马云的继任者陆兆禧在接替马云担任阿里巴巴集团首席执行长之前担任该公司的首席数据长，此前马云曾让他在集团内部担任过一系列不同职务，以增加他的历练。马云得意地笑着说，我把他推进了电冰箱里(这话的意思是说，他有意让陆兆禧去经受磨练);我今年初意识到他准备好了。
Mr. Ma is a big believer in perseverance. Born in Hangzhou, China, he perfected his English skills by talking up tourists at a local hotel. He failed his college entrance exam twice before enrolling in a local teachers college. After trying with no success to land a number of jobs, including one as a secretary to the manager of a Kentucky Fried Chicken outlet, he borrowed $2,000 to start a website called China Pages and then ran an information technology company for a department of China's Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation. In 1999, he raised $60,000 from 18 friends and, from his own apartment, started what is now Alibaba. 马云深信通过坚持不懈就能取得成功。他生在中国杭州，通过在杭州一家酒店里与游客攀谈完善了自己的英语技能。马云曾两次高考落榜，最后上了杭州当地一家师范学院。他毕业后曾尝试过许多工作，包括给一家肯德基炸鸡(Kentucky Fried Chicken)连锁餐厅的经理当秘书，但都不甚成功，后来他借款2,000美元开办了一家名叫“中国黄页”的网站，此后还曾为中国对外经济贸易合作部下属的一个部门运营一家信息技术公司。1999年，他从18位朋友手中筹集了60,000美元，在自己的家里创办了阿里巴巴集团的前身。
Today, Mr. Ma's speeches draw large crowds at the company's annual gathering for customers and media (celebrity speakers have included Bill Clinton and Kobe Bryant). He is married, with two children, including a son who attends college in the U.S. 如今，马云在公司年度客户及媒体大会上的发言会吸引大批听众(年度大会上发表演讲的名人包括比尔•克林顿(Bill Clinton)和科比•布莱恩特(Kobe Bryant))。他结了婚，育有两个子女，其中一个儿子现在美国上大学。
Mr. Ma also has experience with less successful unions. Last fall, Alibaba bought back half of the 40% stake that Yahoo had owned in the company. When asked why, Mr. Ma responds, 'They [Yahoo] changed the CEO how many times?' He leans forward and sways his head from left to right, as if to watch a rapid succession of CEOs. 'It's like a Hollywood movie!' he says. 'It's like a teen series!' 马云也有与较不成功的公司合作的经历。去年秋季，阿里巴巴回购了雅虎持有的40%股权中的一半。马云在回答有关为何回购股权的提问时说，他们(雅虎)更换首席执行长有多少次了?他倾身向前，把头从左摆到右，就好像看着首席执行长们走马灯一样来了又走了。他说，就像一部好莱坞电影，就像一部青少年电视剧。
Mr. Ma admires the work ethic of Yahoo's latest CEO, Marissa Mayer, but the one he holds in highest esteem is its founder Jerry Yang, who first invested $1 billion in Alibaba in 2005. 'I almost walked away from the deal, but he convinced me in a small Japanese restaurant in San Francisco with a glass of sake,' he says. 马云欣赏雅虎现任首席执行长梅耶(Marissa Mayer)的工作作风，但他最敬重的是雅虎创始人杨致远(Jerry Yang)。2005年，杨致远最先向阿里巴巴投资了10亿美元。他说，我几乎放弃了那桩投资案，但在旧金山的一家日本小餐馆里，他用一杯清酒说服了我。
On his trip to California last week, Mr. Ma traveled to Stanford University in search of talent. Speaking in Mandarin at an Alibaba recruiting event, he asked a few hundred handpicked engineers, 'Why don't you take a risk? Why don't you think about going to China?' Judging by the overflowing room, some already are. 在上周去加州期间，马云到斯坦福大学(Stanford University)求贤纳士。在阿里巴巴招聘活动中，他用普通话问几百名精挑细选出来的工程师，你们为什么不冒冒险?你们为什么不考虑一下去中国?从爆满的会场来看，一些人已经打算这样做了。
Though Mr. Ma has high hopes for China, he sees Silicon Valley as the center of global innovation. He will soon launch a U.S.-based fund to invest in Silicon Valley startups. 尽管马云对中国满怀希望，但他认为硅谷才是全球创新中心。不久后，他将推出一只位于美国的基金，向硅谷初创企业投资。
Mr. Ma says his first order of post-CEO business will be 'to sleep for three months.' He may not have that much time. He will still direct strategic and leadership development of the company, which includes helping U.S. businesses use Alibaba's platforms to sell to customers in China and abroad. On the side, he plans to open a tai chi club with the actor Jet Li, build an entrepreneurship university in Hangzhou and continue to work on several social and environmental initiatives, including one with the Nature Conservancy. 马云说，卸任首席执行长后，他要做的第一件事是睡上三个月。但他可能没有那么多时间睡觉。他仍将指导阿里巴巴的战略及领军地位发展，其中包括帮助美国企业使用阿里巴巴的平台向中国和海外客户销售产品。此外，他还计划与影星李连杰合开一个太极俱乐部，在杭州开设一所创业大学，并继续参与几个社会及环境项目，其中一个是与大自然保护协会(Nature Conservancy)合作开展的。
