Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba saw its shares slide below its IPO price for first time since its public offering in September of 2014.
Global markets took a hit this morning amidst concerns about a softening Chinese economy. Shanghai’s stock market fell by 8.5%, its worst day since 2007. The Dow Jones Industrial Average shed 1,000 points on opening this morning.
Last fall, Alibaba debuted on the New York Stock Exchange as one of the largest technology IPOs in history, raising $25 billion. Alibaba (BABA) shares popped as much as 34% from its IPO price of $68 per share. In November, shares surged to a record $119 per share, a 75% jump from its IPO price.
This morning, Alibaba shares fell as low as $59 per share, and rose slightly to $64.56 per share.
As China’s economy has weakened, investors have also become concerned about Alibaba’s slowing revenue growth, and increased competition from e-commerce rival JD.com. In last week’s earnings, Alibaba reported that its latest quarter’s revenue rose 28% to $3.26 billion, missing analyst estimates of $3.39 billion.
Alibaba’s future growth plans include bringing on U.S. And other international brands into its online shopping mall Tmall. The company recently brought on Goldman Sachs banker Michael Evans to oversee this international expansion and just inked an exclusive deal with Macy’s.
Unfortunately, Yahoo is also effected by this plunge. Yahoo (YHOO) is expected to spin off its massive stake in the Chinese e-commerce giant in the fourth quarter of 2015, putting its shares into an independent public company that will be called Aabaco Holdings. Yahoo’s stake, which was worth more than $32 billion in July, was one of the bright spots in its portfolio. As of this morning, the value of Yahoo’s investment in Alibaba dropped to $24.8 billion.
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