Preparing for its initial public offering, e-commerce company Alibaba estimates its stock will sell for $60 to $66 a share. The retailing giant will be listed on the New York Stock Exchange, in what's expected to be one of the biggest IPOs ever.
NPR's Zoe Chace reports:
"Alibaba says that it expects to raise about $24 billion in the IPO — and yeah, that would be the biggest. More than Google, Facebook, Visa — the heavyweights."That puts the valuation at around $155 billion, which is less than those other companies are at right now."It's common for companies to value themselves a bit lower than expected to drum up some momentum, and to get that coveted pop on the opening day of selling — which is expected in about two weeks."
We'll note that the $155 billion figure reflects the middle of Alibaba's estimates; if its stock price goes to the high end of its estimate, at around $66, its valuation would rise above $160 billion — roughly the same as the market capitalization of Amazon.com, according to The Wall Street Journal , citing data from earlier this year.
When Alibaba announced its intention to go public in the U.S. back in May, some analysts said the company was worth more then $200 billion.
The Chinese company is often compared to Amazon — but as the Journal notes in a recent special feature , Alibaba's business also includes other elements, making it "a marketplace, a search engine and a bank, all in one."
In a report this weekend, The New York Times discusses how Alibaba got so big and so successful. Much of the credit goes to its founder, Jack Ma, 49:
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