Boston, MA 05/10/2014 (wallstreetpr) – This Chinese e-commerce giant is going public in the U.S by filing an IPO. It is estimated that this IPO will be the largest in history of Wall Street. When Alibaba filed its 250 page report with Federal Regulator, the company did not mention its intentions about the amount it is planning to raise from the market. According to some estimates Alibaba will be looking to sell around 12% stake, which in monetary terms translates into $15 to $20 billion.
This IPO is believed to eclipse Visa Inc (NYSE:V) and Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB). These two companies collected $18 and $16 billion, respectively from the market. After listing, according to one estimates the company’s market cap will be around $168 billion.
Some interesting facts
Alibaba founder and Chairman Jack Ma, is in fact an English teacher. This visionary had his share of tough times. Jack Ma was introduced to the power of the internet in 1995. While surfing he tried searching but could not get results; so he went on to design web page for a Chinese translation service with a friend and got a tremendous response.
This made him leave his job and was now attracted with the power of internet; went to set up the online business. He setup Alibaba.com as a business-to-business marketplace. The company still retains the same model, but major revenue is generated by it site called Taobao- it is main market place for Chinese merchants. Tmall is another online portal, which sell high end brands. Mr. Jack Ma has a very unique way of leadership; he arranges a mass wedding annually for his employees and also employees can get interest free loans from company to buy their first home.
Private Investors
Yahoo Inc. (NASDAQ:YHOO) invested initially on this start-up company and over a period accumulated shares of this online giant, but in 2012 sold back half of its holding to Alibaba. YHOO now holds 22.6%; because of this, the YHOO shares are buzzing. The agreement between Alibaba and YHOO states, that Alibaba can force Yahoo to sell 40% of its remaining holding. One of the leading Japanese banks is also holding around 34.4% stake in Alibaba.
Disclaimer: The information contained in this article is impersonal and not tailored to the investment needs of any specific person. Any analysis presented herein is illustrative in nature, limited in scope, based on an incomplete set of information, and has limitations to its accuracy.