Alibaba IPO Pours Shares Into Shrinking Pool of Stock

The IPO pours shares into a shrinking pool

Illustration by 731; Alamy (2)

Alibaba Group’s initial public offering was a success by any measure. At $25 billion, it was the largest in history. Investors were so eager to add the Chinese e-commerce giant to their portfolios that the shares soared 38 percent on their debut, the biggest first-day jump for an IPO of at least $10 billion, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. When trading ended on Sept. 19, the company had a market value of $231 billion, more than Amazon.com’s and EBay’s combined.