Traditionally on the Nasdaq
Traditionally, technology companies used to go for the Nasdaq, but Facebook’s
less than smooth IPO seems to have damaged Nasdaq’s reputation. Twitter, for
example, is leaning towards the New York Stock Exchange, when it starts trading
in the near future. NYSE will do everything within its power to attract
a giant like Alibaba,
possibly luring it away from under Nasdaq’s nose.
Alibaba’s worth is an estimated 120 billion dollars (some 90 billion euro),
with a Chinese market share of 80 % when it comes down to e-commerce. Those
numbers give Alibaba third place in the
hierarchy of world’s largest internet companies, only behind Amazon
and Google.
Law prohibits Alibaba from
joining Hong Kong stock exchange
Alibaba heading towards the United States is a huge blow for the Hong Kong
stock exchange. The reason for the failed negotiations lies in the stock structure of the company. Alibaba
uses dual-class shares, popular with online companies like Google and Facebook.
Hong Kong however does not allow this type of structure.
Alibaba has closed a week’s long negotiation with Hong Kong and the
regulators by announcing the possible step towards the US. “We have come to the end of dialogue with Hong Kong and we are
pivoting to the US to start the listing process”, an inside source confirmed to
Reuters. Supposedly, several American law firms have already been contacted in order to follow up on a
possible IPO.
