Opening US data center
Alibaba is moving forward with plans to open a data center in Silicon Valley. The data center will offer several services on an as-needed basis, including cloud computing.
For the time being, we are just testing the water. We know well what Chinese clients need, and now it’s time for us to learn what US clients need.
Chinese education system lacks creativity
Ma says Chinese jiaoyu education system produces students that test better than anyone in the world in jiao – learning – but is lacking in yu – fostering or nourishing creativity:
I think China’s jiao is fine. The problem is with the yu. In terms of jiao, China’s students test better than anyone in the world, but yu is about fostering culture and emotional IQ.
Just outside world top 10
0 CommentsAlibaba’s market cap of $247 billion at its intraday high places it only $2 billion outside the world’s top 10 most valuable companies. It would have overtaken Novartis in tenth spot except for better-than-expected third quarter results that also boosted Novartis’s shares intraday. Revenue was $8.6 billion for the financial year compared with Walmart’s $473 billion.
Wants to invest in Hollywood
Ma says on a conference call that he plans to invest in Hollywood:
I want to come here looking for partners
Alibaba Film is in talks focused on buying a 34% stake in Lionsgate, but they are looking now for who they should be buying it from. Source:
And it’s not just Lionsgate they are talking to, so they are juggling a lot
The source says companies like Alibaba use a ‘Chinese abacus’ approach in deals:
People should be wary about assuming that these Chinese investors are just coming with the money… The Chinese abacus is always there, it’s not always evident, but it’s always there
Matches Walmart market cap
Alibaba’s market cap reaches a high of $248.15 billion compared with Walmart’s high of $247.5 billion intraday. At market close the two retailers are around equal at $246 billion. Alibaba’s shares closed up 1.9% at $99.68, 47% higher since the IPO.
Bigger than Wal-Mart
Research firm S&P Capital IQ calculates that at its intraday high of $99.70 a share, Alibaba has a $245.7 billion market capitalization and is in the top 10 biggest U.S. companies. If Alibaba were in the S&P 500 it would rank as ninth biggest, ahead of Wal-Mart, Chevron and P&G.
100 million shares in 10 minutes
0 Comments100 million shares of Alibaba ($BABA) are traded in the 10 minutes after its debut on the New York Stock Exchange.
May be world’s biggest
0 CommentsAlibaba says that its IPO may become the world’s biggest:
Shares in Alibaba’s IPO were priced at $68. The offering of 320.1 million shares, trading under the ticker symbol BABA, raised $21.77 billion, eclipsing the previous U.S. record set in 2008 when Visa raised nearly $17.9 billion. Underwriters have a 30-day option to buy up to about 48 million more shares. That means the offering size could be as much as $25 billion, which would make Alibaba’s the largest offering ever anywhere in the world.
Tech stocks mixed
Shares in five companies related to Alibaba end mixed on its debut trading day. Alibaba part-owner Yahoo closes down 3% after gaining 20% over the previous few months while SoftBank Corp., another major Alibaba shareholder, loses 1%. U.S. e-commerce rival Amazon ends 2% higher after an analyst raises his price target on the stock, EBay falls 0.5% and JD.com closes down 4%.
11th biggest
Alibaba’s closing price of $93.89 is a 38% gain from its $68 IPO price and values the company at $231 billion. If it were included in the S&P 500, it would be the eleventh-biggest company in the index.
$231 billion market cap
0 CommentsAlibaba’s ($BABA) closing price of $93.89 a share places the company’s market capitalization at $231 billion.
Closes at $93.89
Alibaba ($BABA) closes at $93.89 a share on its first day of trading on the New York Stock Exchange. The closing level is 38% higher than its IPO price of $68 but only 1.3% higher than its trading debut of $92.70.
Share volume spikes
Yahoo’s trading volume spikes to more than 218 million shares by midway through the afternoon session as investors offload the Alibaba part-owner after a 15% run-up since the start of August. FactSet data show the volume is about eight times its average daily total. The shares are down 2.3% at $41.12.
Beats Twitter, Facebook pre-orders
Online brokerage firm TD Ameritrade says pre-open orders for Alibaba ($BABA) were around three times the volume it received for Twitter on its market debut day, and higher than the volume it received for Facebook.
Beats Twitter trading volume
FactSet data shows Alibaba has beaten Twitter’s first-day trading volume within an hour of its debut. A total of 110 million Twitter shares were traded on its first day on the market, while Alibaba has already reached volume of 170 million.
‘Selling other tech stocks’
0 CommentsUBS trader Jeffrey Yu says investors are selling some other large-cap tech stocks to make room for ‘crazy busy’ trading in Alibaba. He says this is why Amazon is off 0.8% for the week despite gaining 1.1% intraday and why Alibaba part-owner Yahoo is down 5% after a run-up earlier in the week. The broader Nasdaq Composite is down 0.6%.
Yahoo gains $5.1 billion
Yahoo gains $5.1 billion by selling 121.7 million of its Alibaba shares into the IPO and keeps 401.8 million additional shares that are valued around $37 billion based on Alibaba’s $92.70 opening price. This fails to impress investors, and its stock is down by 3.8% around midday.
China’s richest
0 CommentsMa becomes the richest person in China as the Alibaba IPO pushes his net worth over $16 billion. His total net worth grows higher when $800 million in cash that he pocketed by selling shares is added. His personal fortune is now larger than that of Baidu founder Robin Li, who has $16.6 billion, and Pony Ma of Tencent with $15.5 billion.
Yahoo stock crashes
Yahoo shares fall sharply in the hours after Alibaba’s debut. At one point during the day the stock price of the U.S. internet company, which has a stake in Alibaba worth around $38 billion, indicates that its core business is worth less than zero – at around minus $0.50 a share.
$YHOO down 2.4% while $BABA is stabilizing near opening price. Buy the rumor, sell the news? http://t.co/YR42KCdDQh pic.twitter.com/JXKhQ5xYSr
— MarketWatch (@MarketWatch) September 19, 2014
Rated above Facebook
0 CommentsRapid Ratings, an independent firm that rates companies on a scale of 1-100 for financial health, places Alibaba at 71, a level that in the past has presented very little default risk. This places it higher on the company’s rankings than Facebook, rated at 70, Amazon at 41, Yahoo at 45 and Twitter at 16.