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China Businesses The Almighty Buck

Alibaba's US IPO Could Top $20 Billion 97

Posted by timothy from the following-in-google's-footsteps dept.
mpicpp writes with a snippet from Businessweek: Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. is seeking to raise as much as $21.1 billion in its initial public offering, in what could be the largest sale of new stock in the U.S. ever. The Chinese company and shareholders including Yahoo! Inc. (YHOO:US) plan to sell 320.1 million American depositary shares for $60 to $66 apiece, according to a regulatory filing today (BABA:US). At the high end of that range, the offering would surpass Visa Inc.'s $19.7 billion IPO in March 2008 and give the company a market value of $162.7 billion. Alibaba's executives are now able to meet fund managers to build demand for the IPO and they plan to begin the roadshow in New York next week, people with knowledge of the matter have said. The Hangzhou-based company has garnered years of attention for its scale — with 279 million active buyers in the year through June — and its exposure to a growing Internet consumer base in China.
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Alibaba's US IPO Could Top $20 Billion More

Alibaba's US IPO Could Top $20 Billion

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  • IPOs (Score:1, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward

    If you aren't buying with the initial purchase prior to public offering, you get scammed. That is where all the money is made. Minimum purchase is usually $200,000-$1,000,000.

    Once you know that, IPOs are less exciting.

    • The Internet bubble is already bursting, with mass layoffs all over the valley. On top of that, the "China growth" story is also cold and dead, with bad debts soaring across Asia.

      This has the makings of a massive flop, but the news media is ecstatic about this IPO despite widespread reporting on both bubbles having burst already.

      Short this piggy.

      • I would not say that. Yes, China's growth rate has fallen from 10% to 7%, but that is still higher than the West's 2%.

        And yes, China is horrible misallocating resources and I reckon that when the bubble busts it will take the wind out of Alibaba's sails. But that is a argument for slower growth, not a falling stock price. (It could, you just need to build out your argument.)

        As for shorting this piggy, as somebody who lived though the Dot.com crash seeing people do this first hand, I will point out that the

      • Re: (Score:1)

        by Anonymous Coward

        Amazon has mindshare in the U.S., but Alibaba is where all the stuff they sell comes from. Alibaba might or might not get rich on their IPO, and their bank will likely rob them even if they do, but Alibaba is still going to eat Amazon's lunch regardless.

        In 10 years, we'll all just buy directly from China with no American earning a paycheck from our purchases, well except for our credit card companies. And we'll 3d print anything we need right this minute, again with no American earning a paycheck from tha

      • Re: (Score:3)

        by paiute ( 550198 )

        the news media is ecstatic about this IPO despite widespread reporting on both bubbles having burst already.

        How much money is going under the lunch table to reporters to generate this excitement?

  • Alibaba Is Useless (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward

    All I know is that whenever any of my searches turn up links in Alibaba the results are worthless. I have to specifically exclude them to get anything useful. I could not care less how this plays out.

    • Google used to let you block certain domains from searches but not anymore. I found an add on that hides results. I haven't seen Alibaba in a long time but that stupid ehow.com always turned up and was never once useful.

  • Wait. The 40 thieves aren't named? (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward

    The article doesn't mention who the 40 thieves are. I suggest they start by looking at the CFO and possibly the CEO and the board of directors.

    *ducks*

  • Only a matter of time before the Chinese government takes over Alibaba, or sues because of "antitrust" or whatever other reason it can think of to get its cut. Either way, how can owning part of a Chinese business be a good investment, unless you are former/current PLA or a wig wearer in the Communist party?

    I wouldn't waste my money.

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by Anonymous Coward

      Only a matter of time before the Chinese government takes over Alibaba, or sues because of "antitrust" or whatever other reason it can think of to get its cut. Either way, how can owning part of a Chinese business be a good investment, unless you are former/current PLA or a wig wearer in the Communist party?

      I wouldn't waste my money.

      You idiot. The Government of China already has substantial control over the company. Ownership is a mere formality in the Communist country. Are does the US do business with China given their terrible human rights record yet are banned from business in Cuba, a tiny island nation? And then Obama lectures Putin about imperialism? At least Canada had the guts at one time to march to Washington, DC, and set the White House alight. If there is a Hell in the Afterlife may all the ball-licking CEOs, CFOs, politici

  • disastrous (Score:4, Interesting)

    by slashmydots ( 2189826 ) on Saturday September 06, 2014 @02:39AM (#47839779)
    I tried to source items from sellers on Alibaba. I really did. Unfortunately, the site looks like a year 1 beta run my morons who don't know what they're doing and have never even heard the term professionalism. Their e-mails are basically scam spam. Every single seller who gave me a quote turned out to be a scammer. Alibaba doesn't give a shit. They do nothing to stop it besides pretending to certify them as gold sellers. If you invest in Alibaba, you might as well put money in Facebook and Apple because apparently you like disastrous Titanic-caliber corporate meltdowns. Investing in companies because they're making money when all their users hate them is so beyond stupid.

    • "...you might as well put money in Facebook and Apple because apparently you like disastrous Titanic-caliber corporate meltdowns.."

      And you were doing so well for a minute there.

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by cobbaut ( 232092 )

      What you say is simply not true.
      I have ordered eight times from Alibaba this year and all items arrived on time, complete and properly labeled. It is much cheaper than any other website and well designed (easy confirmation of arrival, clear evaluation of sellers and buyers, good tracking of products, ...).
      My guess is Amazon/Ebay and others better hurry to improve their service, because this is one very well organized giant invading their market.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Clsid ( 564627 )

      Sure, there are some accounts of people that never answer, but I was able to source medical equipment from India from their site. I'm pretty sure the guy was just a reseller but anyhow, he offered me a good price, I made a profit and was able to solve all my issues in English. In reality, you might want to go to China, find the actual factory, collect your shipment etc, but I didn't have the resources to do that, so the site was good for me.

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by flyneye ( 84093 )

      Odd, whenever I need bulk guitar hardware, I have had NO trouble ordering from sellers on Alibaba. I needn't tell you that I continue to order because that's where I get the best price.
      Yes, it is culturally different to do business with Chinese, but, gotta admit, they do try to westernize their service. You have to remember, it is an Eastern mindset behind it all. That means fewer frills and a hurry up and do business @ lowest cost mentality over finessing the customer with the latest HTML tricks.
      If you cou

    • Ali Baba and it's sister consumer site, Ali Express, are aptly named to recall the famous arabian theives. I've bought lots of items on ali express and my experience is that anything above $40 for sale is going to involve you losing your money to a thief. Things like Suunto watches sell there under $100 but guess what, they are either counterfeits or you never get what you order. Same with Seagull brand watches. It's a theives market. Sure Ali baba has dispute resolution mechanism but the theives know

  • should scare Amazon and ebay.... (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward

    Amazon and ebay mostly sells products from China anyway. Most of what I buy on Ebay is just from resellers of products from Chinese sources. But Alibaba has cheaper more direct access to the real sources of those products, so can sell with less markup. And once Alibaba gets established in the US market there will be less need for the producers of the products to deal with Amazon.

    Amazon and ebay ought to be scared.

  • why all the hate? (Score:3)

    by Charliemopps ( 1157495 ) on Saturday September 06, 2014 @09:46AM (#47840647)

    All I see here is a bunch of hate for Alibaba. I do not understand it. Alibaba is basically the chinese/hong kong version of ebay. I buy stuff off their all the time and it's great. But you have to know what it is to get any use out of it. It's mostly grey market and refurbed stuff. Also, if it's shipping from Hong Kong it's going to take about 2 weeks to get to you. If it's mainland china, it can literally take 2 months. It's not just for cheap stuff, there are things you can get on there that just aren't sold in the US.

    As a hobby I build a lot of stuff... electronics, tools, whatever... I can get prefabbed circuit boards off there for a few dollars. For example, a few years ago I built my own stereo, and wanted it to have bluetooth. I got a blutooth receiver board and a D/A converter for it for about $15, and that sort of thing just didn't exist in the US at the time.

    Every seller I've dealt with on there's been great. I've not gotten ripped off. I've returned things, gotten support, etc... I'm sure there are bad sellers on there, I've not run into one though.

    • I don't hate them. I will not support them, why should I? to make the stockbuyer happy??lol nope. To send my money to another country to save a few bucks nope. I will not buy anything from them as I would prefer my US money stay in the US as mush as I possibly can. so I wont be switching to alibaba ever. And im betting a few million Americans think the same way I do.

      • I don't hate them. I will not support them, why should I? to make the stockbuyer happy??lol nope. To send my money to another country to save a few bucks nope. I will not buy anything from them as I would prefer my US money stay in the US as mush as I possibly can. so I wont be switching to alibaba ever. And im betting a few million Americans think the same way I do.

        If American business's employed Americans, I might agree with you. But they don't. Do you think it's even possible to buy a Stereo or Cellphone made by a US citizen? No... except the ones I build myself and they aren't for sale :-)

  • Our last huge internet-related IPO pulled in several craptons of money for a company that has no product and only functions to waste time and sell users' private data. Alibaba at least has a product and does a useful service. Apparently having an actual business plan is no longer important to having a successful IPO if you're an online company?

    • Our last huge internet-related IPO pulled in several craptons of money for a company that has no product and only functions to waste time and sell users' private data.

      I'm not sure which company you're referring to. Because if it's Facebook (FB), its product is space on its users' screens, and it sells only aggregate data, not personally identifying information, to its advertisers.

      • Our last huge internet-related IPO pulled in several craptons of money for a company that has no product and only functions to waste time and sell users' private data.

        Because if it's Facebook (FB), its product is space on its users' screens

        That is not a particularly valuable product, particularly considering how many people use adblock and other similar browser plug-ins (coupled with the general failure of selling ad space on mobile phones).

        nd it sells only aggregate data, not personally identifying information, to its advertisers.

        To its lower-tiered advertisers, possibly. Don't fool yourself into thinking they aren't selling personally identifying information elsewhere.

        ... and before someone says "if you don't like it, don't use it" - I'm not using facebook. I've never had an account there. However I know they have informat

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by tepples ( 727027 )

          [Ad space on users' screens] is not a particularly valuable product, particularly considering how many people use adblock and other similar browser plug-ins

          Who has produced credible statistics as to how many people use ABP, F.B. Purity, or some other ad blocker? I use an SWF click-to-play extension, but that's it. But then I'm not a Facebook member either. In fact, I've blocked a few of Facebook's hostnames in my laptop's hosts file so I don't even see like buttons.

  • Quote of the day at the bottom of the page (at least for me):

    Never buy what you do not want because it is cheap; it will be dear to you. -- Thomas Jefferson
  • What do they make, do? I've herd of the name once before I though it was a movie tidal lol.

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