BABA Alibaba Raises $21.8 Billion In The Record US IPO

BABA Alibaba founder Jack Ma should be a very happy man. Jack Ma a former English school teacher who at one time was without a job started his Alibaba e-commerce site in 1999 by cobbling together $60K from friends and family members. Jack Ma today is one of China’s best-known businessmen. The company started as an online marketplace for businesses to sell products to one another but quickly expanded into consumer sales and online payments. Alibaba is now a global hub for selling everything from electronic parts to engines to stuffed animals. It also has a growing portfolio of U.S. investments including ShopRunner, an online delivery service, and ride-hailing app Lyft. On Thursday, he made history by successfully raising $21.8 billion in the biggest US IPO. Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. (BABA), the e-commerce company started in 1999 with $60,000 cobbled together by Jack Ma, cemented its status as a symbol of China’s economic emergence by raising $21.8 billion in a U.S. initial public offering.

“Going by Alibaba’s IPO pricing of $68, there is likely to be plenty of upside on the stock on its trading debut,” said Ryan Huang, market strategist at IG.

At that price, the IPO, one of the largest-ever, would give Alibaba a market valuation of $167.6 billion, surpassing American corporate icons from Walt Disney Co (DIS.N) to Boeing Co (BA.N). The offering also vaults it atop U.S. e-commerce rivals like Amazon (AMZN.O) and eBay (EBAY.O) and gives it more financial firepower to expand in the United States and other markets. It seems that BABA Alibaba price is too cheap at $68 per share. But there are some problems that you should keep them at the back of your mind. Just keep this in mind that Alibaba is a successful Chinese e-commerce site. It has yet to prove that it will be as much as successful in US as it was in China. But there’s still that nagging worry over whether it will connect with U.S. consumers, who in the past have been less than willing to buy into Chinese retailers of any sort.