There has been a lot of buzz about Alibaba lately. Their upcoming IPO is set to make a few people billionaires and many more millionaires. It may in fact be the biggest IPO ever in recent history. Analysts estimate the company is worth between $136 to $250 Billion. Within technology companies this puts Alibaba’s worth below Apple, Google and Microsoft and on the lower end, just under Facebook and Qualcomm. For those not familiar with Alibaba, it is the Chinese version of Google, Amazon, Ebay, and Youtube combined. Among its early investors include Japanese based Softbank and Yahoo. Softbank CEO and founder_Masayoshi Son recently bought Sprint in the United States and is looking to also acquire T-Mobile. Son was an early investor Yahoo and owns the majority of Yahoo Japan. Son was instrumental in also convincing Yahoo to invest in Alibaba. In 2005 Yahoo invested $1 billion in Alibaba for a 40% stake.

Softbank currently owns ~34% of Alibaba and Yahoo owns ~23%.

In 2012 Yahoo owned closer to 40%...



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