Alibaba

Alibaba Group Said to Raise $21.8 Billion in Record U.S. IPO - Bloomberg The sale, which values Alibaba at $167.6 billion, is already the largest by any company in the U.S., and has the potential to break the global record -- currently held by Agricultural Bank of China Ltd.’s $22 billion IPO in 2010 -- if underwriters issue more shares. 

Related: Jack Ma Planning Personal Roadshow With Clinton to Immelt - Bloomberg Starting with a private lunch tomorrow, after Alibaba Group Holding Ltd.’s trading debut in one of the largest initial public offerings ever, founder and Chairman Ma is slated to meet with more than 20 high-profile CEOs from General Electric Co. to BlackRock Inc. and the founder of KKR & Co. Later, he’ll head to a reception at New York restaurant Cipriani with investors and members of the media, according to people with knowledge of the events. Next week, he’ll attend the Clinton Global Initiative, to meet the political crowd...The lunch will be hosted by Michael Bloomberg, founder of Bloomberg LP, the parent of Bloomberg News.

Related: Alibaba, With Its I.P.O., Mints Millionaires and Risk-Takers - NYTimes.com The initial public offering on Thursday, which valued Alibaba at $168 billion, will provide Silicon Valley-style payouts. At Alibaba and its affiliates, around 6,000 current and former employees owned stock worth nearly $8 billion before the I.P.O. And that sum represents only a piece of the shares doled out over the years to employees, some of whom cashed out earlier at lower, albeit still lucrative, prices.

Related: Alibaba’s New Campus Sets Up for a Big Party - NYTimes.com On Friday, the day of its listing, it finally has a fake that will inspire pride: A re-creation of the famed facade of the New York Stock Exchange. The structure, which has been put up in the main courtyard of the company’s new campus in the eastern Chinese city of Hangzhou, will serve as the center of festivities Friday evening local time, when the company lists in New York.

Related: Dude, where are my socks? | the Anthill A few months ago I interviewed a young couple who ran a Taobao store from their flat in Yanjiao, a far-out district of Beijing. Their store is called Box Tie-Dye and they sell tie-dye clothes, which means tshirts, vests, tank tops and the like, hand-dyed in trippy colours. They dye the clothes themselves, in their sink. It's all very hippie, and so not super representative of the Taobao ecosystem (electronics from Shenzhen is more the norm), but interesting nonetheless. Instead of writing it up straight, I figured I would place an order with them – for a single pair of socks – and then journal what happens to that order from the click of my mouse to the moment it arrives at my door.

Related: A US pothole on Alibaba’s road to global domination | New York Post “They would have to clean up the farm to be accredited with us. They have a lot of work to do,” said Steve McFarland, CEO of the Better Business Bureau’s Silicon Valley arm. The trade group has given Alibaba a big, fat “F” for failing to respond to 79 complaints in the last three years, nearly half of the 144 lodged against it, according to McFarland. The complaints — lodged against Alibaba.com, the company’s wholesale web site for businesses, along with AliExpress, its factory-direct web site for consumers — focus on fake goods, delivery issues and false advertising by sellers.

Related: After Years of Dominance, UnionPay's Enemies Arrive at the Gates - Caixin Alipay and companies like it handle payments through their own network formed by separate clearing agreements with banks, circumventing UnionPay's system. UnionPay says the operations violate regulations and it wants compensation. Neither party has given ground. The central bank has leaned toward requiring all payments be routed through UnionPay's network over risk concerns. But its move has been criticized for favoring UnionPay and reinforcing its monopoly. The situation may be about to change. Sources close to the situation said the central bank has filed a proposal to the State Council, the country's cabinet, for setting up standards and rules for a range of payment-related issues, including establishing a new bank card organization.