Alibaba.com IPO to be the largest since Google's
Alibaba Group, the Chinese e-commerce giant set to launch an initial public offering of a business-to-business unit on November 6, said it now expects to raise $1.49 billion. That makes it the largest tech IPO since Google raised $1.66 billion in 2004. Alibaba founder and former English teacher Jack Ma hasn't missed the connection.
According to reports, Ma said on Monday, "investors who had missed out on Google's IPO don't want to miss out on Alibaba's."
There are believers out there. Some are saying that because of its cozy relationship with the Chinese government and that nation's enormous population, Alibaba might have the potential to outgrow Google. That'd be great news for Yahoo, which owns 39 percent of of Alibaba and plans to buy $100 million in shares.
But hold on a second. Ma's Alibaba Group is just spinning off shares of Alibaba.com, a business which matches Chinese manufacturers with customers in the West. Shareholders in Alibaba.com won't benefit from the growth of Yahoo China, which Alibaba Group controls. So Ma's comparisons to Google are spurious in more ways than one.
