WebProNews

Alibaba has released details regarding its initial public offering: the event should take place on November 6th, and is intended to raise about $1.5 billion.  Also, if earlier reports hold true, that’ll mean Yahoo could shell out around $150 million.

When we last covered Yahoo’s plan to buy ten percent of the available shares, Alibaba’s initial price per share was lower; the increase that’s occurred would cost Yahoo an additional $50 million.  Still, the big story relates more to Alibaba.

In an AP article, this development is characterized “as the biggest Internet IPO since Google” (Google raised $1.66 billion back in 2004).  Furthermore, Alibaba.com, a business-to-business ecommerce site, “has seen its registered members soar from 6 million in 2004 to 24.6 million in 2007.  Paying members increased from 77,000 in 2004 to 255,000 by June 2007.”  And profits increased accordingly - if anything, more than accordingly.

Still, this story may not get quite as much coverage in the American press as Google’s IPO did; Alibaba intends to list in Hong Kong.  That may make it harder for the average American investor to get onboard, as well.  Nonetheless, look for this to impact American search companies, and particularly their presences in China.