Abstract

Alibaba, the largest e-commerce company in the world in terms of Gross Merchandise Volume, came up with the largest ever Initial Pubic Offer in September 2014. The company had raised US$25 billion by selling around 368 million American depository shares. This case study covers Alibaba’s IPO in detail. It helps bring out the importance of long term equity financing against the backdrop of the largest IPO in human history. It provides enough content to discuss various issues related to this IPO such as variable interest entities, IPO pricing, valuation of shares, and challenges to Alibaba in its future growth.

Learning Objectives

The case is structured to achieve the following Learning Objectives:

• Analyze the various issues in Alibaba’s IPO
• Emphasize the importance of an Initial Public Offer in the long-term financing of a growing firm
• Understand the reasons for the success of Alibaba’s IPO

Keywords

Initial public offer, IPO, Ecommerce, hyped Tech IPOs, China, Biggest IPO, Largest IPO, IPO, Initial Public Offering, Bidding strategy, Finance for Managers, Managerial Finance, Financial Management, Principles of Financial Management, Business Finance, Corporate Finance, Financial Management Course Case, Corporate Finance Course pack