What do you think of the Alibaba US IPO?

ack

VIP/Donor & WBF Founding Member
May 6, 2010
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ack

VIP/Donor & WBF Founding Member
May 6, 2010
6,774
1,198
580
Boston, MA

Steve Williams

Site Founder, Site Owner, Administrator
If you read the story of Jack Ma it is quite amazing and the growth of his company and all of the associated off shoot businesses from transport company to lending company

I have seen some of the work done by Alibaba for my buddy Marty in parts of his new house and I can say the work is spectacular quality

The rub is they will copy and build anything as I understand it
 

ack

VIP/Donor & WBF Founding Member
May 6, 2010
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Good to know, but the moment you go public you answer to the public and you hold the public's financial interests as top priority. Have you seen convincing evidence they will do that?
 

Barry

Member Sponsor
Jan 7, 2012
273
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Somewhere near Philadelphia, USA
There are compelling reasons to watch Asian Internet companies in the future. 45% of the nearly 3 billion web users are based there. 7 of the 10 biggest Internet acquisitions by value this year were made by Asian firms. 4 of the top 10 largest Internet companies by market cap (Alibaba is estimated at $165B or 3rd largest) are Asian. That said, trying to make money on ANY IPO is a crap shoot.
 

rblnr

Member Sponsor & WBF Founding Member
May 3, 2010
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Right, and even more alarming is the insiders' ability to sell on day 1 - http://www.marketwatch.com/story/ali...9-17-231035350

That's one of the major probs with these IPOs for the individual investor. It's a rigged game.


There are compelling reasons to watch Asian Internet companies in the future. 45% of the nearly 3 billion web users are based there. 7 of the 10 biggest Internet acquisitions by value this year were made by Asian firms. 4 of the top 10 largest Internet companies by market cap (Alibaba is estimated at $165B or 3rd largest) are Asian. That said, trying to make money on ANY IPO is a crap shoot.

I'm up on Alibaba for these sorts of macro reasons, but won't touch the IPO for the reasons above and things like this FB, Twitter, etc always tend to take a fall pretty quickly after the IPO which I'll be on the lookout for with Alibaba.
 

amirm

Banned
Apr 2, 2010
15,813
37
0
Seattle, WA
That's one of the major probs with these IPOs for the individual investor. It's a rigged game.
Indeed. The bakers almost guarantee that the people with shares prior to the IPO come out ahead. I was lucky enough to participate in one and while it was very small number of shares, it was eye opening to how the game is played.
 

rblnr

Member Sponsor & WBF Founding Member
May 3, 2010
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. I was lucky enough to participate in one and while it was very small number of shares, it was eye opening to how the game is played.

I got to buy a small amount of Palm IPO shares some years ago mostly because my broker at that time felt bad about some advice he'd given me. IIRC, the IPO price was around 30. When it broke, the market price got to the mid-sixties or so in a day or two and I sold. What a racket.
 

ack

VIP/Donor & WBF Founding Member
May 6, 2010
6,774
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Boston, MA
Talking about gaming the system... analysts upgraded Yahoo's target today because of the BABA IPO - what?!?
 

rrr

New Member
May 17, 2010
127
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I was very interested and spoke to my FA yesterday. He was not gung ho on it for the very reason that it's registered in the Cayman Islands

There are lots of legitimate reasons for registration in Cayman.

But these highly hyped IPO's are much better for the people who bought pre-IPO than to those who buy post IPO. Usually better to let the frenzy dissipate.
 

KeithR

VIP/Donor
May 7, 2010
5,137
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rumors that their are some questions regarding sales/accounting already.

stock now below IPO price now after a pop to 100 lol. and yhoo as well.
 

amirm

Banned
Apr 2, 2010
15,813
37
0
Seattle, WA
I got to buy a small amount of Palm IPO shares some years ago mostly because my broker at that time felt bad about some advice he'd given me. IIRC, the IPO price was around 30. When it broke, the market price got to the mid-sixties or so in a day or two and I sold. What a racket.
I too sold my shares immediately. I only made something like $2 a share though :). My participation came from being a customer of the firm for many years so they put me in the "friends and family" pool.
 

FrantzM

Member Sponsor & WBF Founding Member
Apr 20, 2010
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That a good portion of the World Economy rests on what is close to a Lottery is a scary thought .. Will we ever learn? :mad:
 

BlueFox

Member Sponsor
Nov 8, 2013
1,709
406
405
So, China blocks Google and Facebook in China, the Chinese military hacks into U.S. businesses to steal data for Chinese competitors, they export contaminated baby formula, dog food, and crush opposition speech, yet we kiss their butt so a few people on Wall Street can get even richer.
 

grossjerald

New Member
Jan 26, 2019
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1
36
Alibaba IPO was ranked as the worlds biggest at $25 billion. Going public seems to be a form of advertising. Today the ride hailing company UBER is planning to go public this year.
 

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