[The original post by Martin at Chinese Defence Forum]
Alibaba's market cap passes Wal-Mart as shares hit new high | Fortune
"Alibaba's market cap passes Wal-Mart as shares hit new high
by Tom Huddleston, Jr.
October 28, 2014
View attachment 142823
Photo by Hong Wu—Getty Images
The Chinese e-commerce company’s shares hit a record high on Tuesday following rumors of a marriage with Apple Pay.
Wal-Mart’s status as the world’s largest retailer is on shaky ground today after a bump in Alibaba’s share price drove the Chinese e-commerce giant’s market capitalization to $251 billion, compared with roughly $246 billion for Wal-Mart.
Alibaba’s BABA stock touched a record high in early Tuesday trading, and were lately hovering around the $100 mark, in the wake of CEO Jack Ma’s recent comments about a possible marriage between Apple’s AAPL new mobile payments system, Apple Pay, and his own company’s Alipay. (Ma made the suggestion at a tech conference on Monday and Apple CEO Tim Cook immediately voiced his approval of the idea.)
Shares of Alibaba are up more than 2% this afternoon and they have gained more than 4% since the start of the week, propelling the Chinese company’s total share value past that of Wal-Mart WMT , which reported another quarter of lackluster U.S. sales numbers in August. The U.S. retailer’s own shares, which are down around 0.5% on Tuesday, have lost more than 3% of their value since the start of the year.
Alibaba, meanwhile, is a little more than a month removed from launching its record IPO, which raised about $25 billion on September 18. The company’s shares have gained in value since that point, reaching as high as $100.50 apiece on Tuesday, and its market cap has gained more than $80 billion since the pre-IPO pricing of Alibaba shares valued them at $68."
----------
Google, Alibaba Largest Internet Firms By Market Capitalization - Investors.com
"Google, Alibaba Are Largest Internets By Market Cap
By BRIAN DEAGON, INVESTOR'S BUSINESS DAILY
Posted 10/29/2014
Google (NASDAQ:GOOGL) has the largest market capitalization of all Internet companies, followed by China e-commerce giant Alibaba Group (NYSE:BABA), as represented on U.S. stock markets.
Market cap is what the market thinks a public company is worth. It's the total value of the company's outstanding common stock, not including preferred shares. The valuation fluctuates depending on stock price.
Google's market cap is near $380 billion, which puts it neck-and-neck with Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) for No. 2 among all tech companies. No. 1 in tech, and overall, is Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL), near $638 billion.
View attachment 142824
Alibaba's market cap is near $244 billion.
Facebook (NASDAQ:FB) has the third-largest market cap among Internet companies, near $200 billion. Facebook stock was down 6% Wednesday afternoon, after the company reported Q3 earnings that had some disappointments."
Wow... This alibaba is a giant beast.
But Apple is in another league altogether.