Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. has been described as a mixture of Amazon.com Inc. and EBay Inc. during the preparation for its U.S. initial public offering. In the last quarter, Alibaba earned more than those companies combined.
Operating income at China’s biggest e-commerce operator rose to $1.1 billion in the three months ended June, or 42 percent more than the combined profit of Amazon and EBay for the period. After including one-time gains, Alibaba’s net income was more than double those of its competitors.
Alibaba’s results, probably the last before the IPO, underscore how its Taobao and Tmall platforms are connecting consumers to businesses in the most populous nation and how the company is transitioning to mobile services. Alibaba may kick off its roadshow meetings to market the share sale next week, people with knowledge of the matter have said.
Alibaba: China's E-Commerce Giant
“Alibaba still has huge potential for making money, mostly because of its mobile platform,” said Li Muzhi, a Hong Kong-based analyst at Arete Research Service LLP. “Alibaba has advanced more than EBay in that it also has its own business-to-consumer business, instead of just linking individual buyers and sellers.”
Net income at Hangzhou-based Alibaba nearly tripled to $1.99 billion, helped by gains on stakes held in UCWeb Inc. and OneTouch, the company said in a filing.
Alibaba has yet to announce the price of shares in the IPO. The company may be worth $187 billion after the share sale, according to the average estimate of 11 analysts surveyed by Bloomberg last month.
EBay and Amazon have a combined market value of $226 billion, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
Stock Compensation
Alibaba issued stock-based compensation worth $59 a share, which indicates a market value of $138 billion, based on 2.34 billion shares outstanding as of June 30, according to the Aug. 27 filing. The share count includes preferred and unvested restricted shares.
Revenue rose 46 percent in local currency to the equivalent of $2.54 billion, Alibaba said.
“This was a pretty good quarter that should help sentiment around the valuation of the deal,” said Jeff Papp, an analyst at Oberweis Asset Management Inc., which oversees more than $1.5 billion in Lisle, Illinois.
Alibaba said the number of customers accessing sites through smartphones, a key plank of its growth strategy, increased sharply. The company had 188 million mobile monthly active users in June, up from 163 million in March, according to its filing. The company agreed in June to acquire the rest of UCWeb to add Internet browsers and an application store to its services for mobile devices.
Mobile Transactions
Mobile transactions accounted for 32.8 percent of Alibaba’s total in the June quarter, up from 27.4 percent in the previous three months and just 12 percent a year earlier.
Alibaba’s retail platforms helped generate 6.1 billion packages in the 12 months ended June, accounting for 54 percent of the nation’s total, the company said.
Shares of Yahoo! Inc., which owns a 23 percent stake in Alibaba, rose 0.3 percent to $38.31 in New York yesterday. The Sunnyvale, California-based company will be selling the largest chunk of shares in the IPO. SoftBank Corp., which owns more than 30 percent of Alibaba, rose 2 percent as of 9:27 a.m. in Tokyo.
Still, Alibaba’s profit margins narrowed during the quarter in part because of rising marketing expenses. Alibaba’s margin on adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization, declined during the quarter to 54 percent from more than 56 percent a year earlier.
Investor Meetings
“Margins had been coming down a bit and that continued,” Papp said. “That’s continued to be a negative, with the one exception that they already still have extremely high margins to begin with.”
EBay has an Ebitda margin of 26.7 percent and Amazon 5.7 percent, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
Alibaba’s investor meetings for the IPO will give the company the opportunity to answer questions from the world’s biggest fund managers and build demand for its shares.
The schedule, put forth by banks managing the offering, would have meetings begin in Hong Kong and Singapore before executives travel to London and eventually host their first U.S. event in New York on Sept. 8, people with knowledge of the matter have said. The timeline has Alibaba targeting a Sept. 16 trading debut, the people said.
Acquisition Spree
Chinese Internet users have grown to 632 million, greater than the population of any other country except India, and could exceed 850 million by 2015, according to government data. McKinsey & Co. predicts online retailing in the world’s second-largest economy will reach $395 billion next year, triple its 2011 level.
Alibaba has announced 29 deals worth $16 billion since the start of 2012, expanding into everything from finance and soccer to media entertainment and taxi booking services.
In May, Alibaba bought a 10 percent stake in Singapore Post Ltd. to develop its logistics in Southeast Asia. It also invested in Youku Tudou Inc., Intime Retail Group Co. and TangoMe Inc., and on July 15 announced plans for a video streaming service in China with Lions Gate Entertainment Corp.
One of Alibaba’s recent acquisitions, film producer Alibaba Pictures Group Ltd., said this month its new management uncovered accounting flaws and won’t be able to publish results on time. Alibaba acquired 60 percent of the company for about $800 million in June.
In the earnings filing, Alibaba said it has made provisions to the value of the assets, noting that the issues at Alibaba Pictures won’t materially affect its overall financial position.

onatisi: texaco filling station ?dem dey sell laptop ?

that's the shop, their website is ile-ife.com

Buying phones on aliexpress so cool, with ease you will be given an original fake phones. Am not discouraging, am just sharing my info about the site. Check on youtube "aliexpress fake iphone5/goophone i5

*fart* tweentums ao ar u lets chit chat *yawn* [lazy mood]

^^^ bro i hail oh we jst here to knw much betta rite [i appreciate ur point of view]

walexsho:
Its like those You mentioned buy in bulk from alibaba, is there price thesame with that of Aliexpress. If not, why discourage those who are on there way to also make it big. Importing larger qty is not the Issue, but the goods get stuck and you pay heavily for retrieval, that's the only fear ℓ have with this business.

fear keh a bizness man ah no dis Nigeria problem self "ignorant,fear" bro u gotta take big risk nd stop ur focus on fear.[fear doest exist we jst creat it in our mind]

eph12:
You buying for personal use or reselling? Also depends on where you are searching for your items.

both big bro. jst d process itZ ntrestn and fun bt stil got 2 reason nd use d number 6 (Love na d seventh sense which dixturb d rest sense.

liberia,sierria leone can get a prison cos if do jizz na ebola go wash dem out, dat sound like a free pass.

if a doctor like tancredi is in one of those prison well mayb scolfield could do a prison break again cos he love dat girl #die mehn can bliev dat "low latent inhibition" died it pains me, dnt even knw wen water comes out f ma eyez.

wit 0l d stress nd ol d money spent on gettn ur goods here itz stiL as d same as gettn ur goods here in Naija. {m not makn d same mistake CNN did oh}

Tweetums: you have to open paypal and verified it before u can transact on eBay. That is the only means

though paypal have accept Nigerial but they dont allow any kind of transaction to b made. if u ar in Nigeria,hw do u manage ur paypal?

sapienman:

Yeah. What part of Ife are you in?

sapienman:

Yeah. What part of Ife are you in?

sapienman:

Yeah. What part of Ife are you in?

BOSS NA ONDO ROAD AREA NA HIN I DEY OGA MI. NA WHERE BE UR OWN AREA?
If u c dix post Holla @ ur boi...

Readin dix thread its even interestin than a novel..... anyone here in ife...?

Hi room, good morning happy new month nd tank God it's Monday. Am a 'low key' guy I nid everyone's advice. Pls I paid for a power bank on aliexpress and the supplier refused to ship my goods to me, now I don't want the good from that supplier again how will I use my money to buy from other supplier?

henrygentle: @Chrisvicmall: Thanks, i just received my goods today and i thank God for safe delivery of the goods to Nnewi. Ifeanyi, you're really trying bt you need extra hand to make it more easier for you and we the customers.

can you show us, i will like to see it.

Hmmm! By the time you are thru with this post you will understand that all i wanted to do is to show am following FULLSTOP.

Love to read tinZ am interested in firstly e dey sweet ma body 2ndly i dey learn so much here nd third mehn its what am starting very soon so am sure i have good mentor here. Hehehe make una dey keep am update no mind ma childish act cos thats the way i am. Soon we will be able to ship chinese fresh head down here hehehe ethernet sweet pass FULLSTOP.

Abeg how you come write the title like that oya let me remodify am 4 you 'Olamide,Davido,wizzy'. And for ur info Olamide be international local champion hehe inn no nonsense he be comfirm ajepako,he no dey form stupid ajebutter like that chicken {wizkid}hehehe his fanz no vex i dey xpress ma feelingz. Oboi crab thiz copy ooh that guy na badt boi in town oh #gbam# OLAMIDE YBNL1805 MOVEMENT TO MILLITARY OMO ITA LAWA OH AWA O LA WERE AWA O KO WERE JE.

miss d days wen we went 2 sch, lined up & D
headmistress & teachers inspect our nails & uniform
&den we match to our classrooms,
U Remember na??
• D days of Nasco Biscuit, okin biscuit Trebor, Iced
Colored water tied in nylon we called it "lolly"
• D days of Goody-Goody&pak o Biscuit. X_X
• D days of ali & simbi,Mr Salami & Mrs Salami, Agbo
lives in Calabar.
...
• Chei, i remember those day
s when one naira na money,when groundnut was
5kobo. & choco milo sweet was 5 kobo
• days of messing game,who is in d garden, police and
thief
• D days of mama & papa play
• days when we use to build houses with sand, play
suwe game,tinco tinco,change ƔU̶̲̥̅̊я style, ten ten,
skipping, stop! U remember nau!
•those days wen we used to fly kite on streets, wen
boys used to use d bucket cover as tire & their
daddy's hanger as d steering
•those days when rubber band was stock exchange
•days when votron, jimbo, power rangers, spider man
was our favourite cartoons
• D days of limca soft drinks& choco milo advert on
black and white tv Nd̶̲̥̅̊ sunday rendevous by1:30pm
• when we say 'leke leke give me white finger'
• Those days when eleganza pen was d best
• D days wen we used to drink water from d tap even
suck out d water if its not coming out
• D days when NTA will show rainbow color for 30 mins
then national anthem before they resume program @
4pm • D days were basket sandals,simbi nd Bata
sandals were d best
•Days wen we all sing sandalili sandalili songs, dstv
has come. No more old fun.
I'm really proud to have experienced all this. If u r nt
smiling it means u were nt born in my generation.
which means u ar d INDOMIE generation lol! U are right

I just don't feel like trusting that man, there are so many of them online dixdayz bt i really need this crap/shit am serious LOL

ephilipand: Yes the system. Lets forget about english cos have seen that is part of our problem.
If you wan reduce dis scam thng to the bearest minimum, brothers we go start from the head. Take some of our leaders as examples; them steal $48 billion and when them come they exposed u know wetin go happen dem go ask them to pay $500 million but if we hungry Nigerian steal N1,000 not to talk of N1,000,000 you know where we go find ourselves,police nest even go jail. So, for those talking negative about yahoo boys. Do something for me, "Deal with the fk head". O.K

i Gbadun U joor. Someone said ppl don't want to work dixdayz do you think its easy to wrk on the internet? Men your brain go Hot like hell. And for those leader do you know wat they av gone through before they made it to where they are and what they are still doing as we speak write now? The world is going crazy everybody wana be a succesfull man.

Whu carez! If u like date me if u like dn't. I wil neva stop 4 a sec. 2 enjoy ma lyf just to show u dat am gud.

Maria-G:

yuck! You are so confused
whatever happened to "I havent found the best word to describe it"......gosh...waste of time

Nd now dat u've knw how to put it. D truth ix av figure out the point particularly in U....Ew!

Maria-G:
well, thats the problem.... I cant interprete it...its so overwhelming.

BTW, what point are you talking about?

Once you can't interpret Ur feelinz,u now start to pretend. U must be a very good pretender in 0l wayz <3. .....No worries now i fhnk i'v figure out the point.

Maria-G:

the definition is in my feelings....

Atleast you can interpret ur feelinz.xprezz it i want ur ans. Jst 2 knw u're virtually wrong{Like i dn't really get ur point of view}

To me, i don't do such thingz nd to my point of view if i said anyfhn like that that meanz wat am tryin 2 say ix dat ''i need 2 move on my own/we shld let go of dix relationship am done wif it''

U can shit/cheat on your boyfriend {i mean the one u're really in love wif} U knw jst 4 fun nd if u get caught let him know u only do it 4 fun how bout dat uhmm