China's Alibaba.com Plans $1 Billion IPO

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on July 30, 2007 - 12:10pm.

Hangzhou, China - Alibaba.com, China's largest business-to-business site, is currently preparing for a $1 billion initial public offering (IPO) later this quarter in Hong Kong, PEHub.com reported, citing the official China Securities Journal.

Morgan Stanley will serve as lead underwriter for the offering.

Hangzhou, China-based Alibaba.com has so far raised a total of about $107 million in venture capital, from investors including Fidelity Investments, Goldman Sachs, Granite Global Ventures and Softbank China VC.

In addition to its business-to-business site, the Alibaba Group also operates Taobao.com, an eBay competitor in China; Alipay, a PayPal competitor; and Yahoo China.

Yahoo acquired a 40% stake in the company for $1 billion plus Yahoo's Chinese assets in 2005.

http://www.alibaba.com