Alibaba.com, the Chinese Web portal in which Yahoo owns a 40 percent stake, is reportedly prepping for an IPO. And the smell of money draws activists in the same way blood in the water draws sharks. In a revelation ill-timed for Yahoo, which is hoping to realize more value from its stake in Alibaba, a critic accuses Alibaba of being "the New York Stock Exchange of shark fins," according to a story in BusinessWeek. One small problem for Yahoo's shark-fin sharpies, however: the practice, while distasteful to many, is not illegal in China, where Alibaba's based. Still, new Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang, who played a key role in negotiating Yahoo's investment in Alibaba, is surely eager to see an Alibaba IPO go off without a hitch. That alone may prompt him to pressure Alibaba to cave into activists' demands and stop the trade.

The Deal has a subscriber-only interview with Peter Thiel, the PayPal founder and Facebook board member, summarized here. Thiel knocks down talk of a Facebook IPO, saying the company wants to wait another 18 months. But this bit, on the prospects of selling Facebook before it goes public, is classic Thiel:

Despite millions of dollars spent on advertising, Orbitz remains, for doddering old webheads like yours truly, a disgusting carbonated beverage, not a troubled online trip booker. But investors are expected to find tomorrow's Orbitz IPO, in which the much-traveled Internet company hopes to raise $617 million, just as yucky. Here's why.

If you missed our saturation coverage of all things Facebook, here's a nice recap. CNBC's Melissa Francis quizzes yours truly on the scandal about "Valleyfreude," the IPO-promoting video by Facebook employee Randi Jayne, the sister of CEO Mark Zuckerberg: (Video by CNBC)

Just in case you had any remaining doubts that Facebook is going public — a fact that Mark Zuckerberg's sister, Randi Jayne, profanely sings about in a video that's since been taken down — check out this job listing:

The IPO market is unquestionably back. Having tapped the market for financial companies to take public, Wall Street is now turning, yet again, to Silicon Valley for IPO candidates. The latest one: NetSuite, Larry Ellison's pet Web-based software company. NetSuite's premise is simple and appealing: Cheap, Web-based alternatives to software from Oracle and SAP to run small businesses's finances and operations. But NetSuite's S-1 filing, the obligatory prospectus companies must file before they sell shares to the public, is anything but simple and appealing. After the jump, the most disturbing bits, and plain-English translations.

Never order the Surf 'n' Turf. You want steak, or you want lobster. Order both — the priciest combo on the menu — and you're admitting you're a greedy jerk.

Overheard at Sacred Grounds, a guy at a table to the guy with him, who's talking into a cell phone, discussing Pandora and some business deals:

Ah, wait, maybe this is why Google Finance pussyfoots around Handheld Entertainment. Carl Page, Handheld co-founder and brother of Google co-founder Larry Page, took his little company public with a reverse merger (buying out the private Handheld with one of those shell companies).