[2] In 1988, Ma met Liu Chuanzhi, the founder and CEO of the computer company Legend (now Lenovo), for the first time, and was impressed by his vision and management style.

[1] Legend's employee ownership has been credited with helping the company weather the major downturn of the dotcom crash in 2000, and Ma was promoted to chief financial officer.

The US$1.75 billion deal quadrupled Lenovo's size overnight and turned the largely domestically oriented company into the world's third-largest computer maker.

[3] In 2006, Ma was involved in negotiating Lenovo's sponsorship deal for the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin; it was the first time a Chinese company had sponsored a major global sports event.

[4] Boyu raised close to US$10 billion, and invested in major companies and startups including Alibaba Group, NetEase Music, LY.com, Easyhome, and Megvii.