The Birth of BABA
On September 19 the China-based e-commerce giant Alibaba performed the largest IPO in U.S. history:
Alibaba (symbol:BABA) was collecting $ 21.8 billion - more than Google, Facebook, and Twitter combined (HERE).
Alibaba's consumer-to-consumer portal Taobao, similar to eBay.com, features nearly a billion products and is one of the 20 most-visited websites globally. The Group's websites accounted for over 60% of the parcels delivered in China by March 2013, and 80% of the nation's online sales by September 2014. Alipay, an online payment escrow service, accounts for roughly half of all online payment transactions within China.
After some delays matching the huge volume of buy and sell orders, the first trade of Alibaba took place at 11.54 a.m. (HERE).