The stocks surged from $68 at opening to $93.89 at closing

Sep 20, 2014 10:24 GMT  ·  By

Alibaba’s IPO launch was a resounding success, just as everyone had hoped. After opening at $68 (€53) per stock, the day closed at $93.89 (€73.17), and it got the company the $21.8 billion (€17 billion) they were hoping to get from the offering.

The 38 percent surge since the initial price indicates just how much the company’s entrance on the stock market was awaited by investors from all over the world. This is one of the biggest IPOs in history.

Most importantly, however, is the fact that Alibaba’s IPO made the company’s worth surge to $231 billion (€180 billion), which is more than Amazon and eBay combined.

Yahoo wins $8.3 billion (€6.47 billion) by selling shares in the IPO

There are quite a few questions looming now that Alibaba has gone public. Most of them revolve around what the company is going to do with all the extra money it managed to attract. Rumors are swirling that one of the first steps would be buying out Yahoo’s slice of the company.

The company held a 22.6 percent stake in the Chinese company, which has benefited the Internet giant immensely over the past few years, especially as its own value dropped alongside its revenues.

Yahoo has already made some $8.3 billion from selling 121.7 million of its shares in the initial public offering. Since the company decided to sell the shares at the $68 price, it lost $3 billion (€2.33 billion) that it could have made by pumping the shares into the market at a later time.

Softbank, another Alibaba investor from Japan, didn’t sell any of its shares in the IPO even though it is the largest outside holder of shares.

Yahoo continues to hold onto 401.8 million shares of Alibaba, which are worth $37.7 billion (€29.38 billion) at the opening price. Considering that Yahoo’s market cap currently sits at $40.7 billion (€31.72 billion) itself, that’s huge.

Jack Ma, the richest man in China

Jack Ma is the executive chairman of the ecommerce giant and one of its co-founders. Following the IPO, he has become the richest man in China, worth about $16 billion (€12.46 billion), Forbes estimates.

Softbank, the Japanese investor, holds about 19 percent of the company’s stock, and as of Friday, is worth over $50 billion (€38.96 billion) alone.

There are questions about whether or not Alibaba will now start to purchase smaller companies from all over the world, but most particularly from the United States, where it wants to expand.