Alibaba's $105b lockup ends, putting focus on Yahoo stake
Alibaba Group Holding Ltd set a record with the size of its initial public offering. Now five times that amount of stock just became available, and all eyes are on Yahoo Inc.
The lockup on 63 percent of Alibaba shares ended on Saturday. In premarket trading, the company shares fell by 1.2 percent on Monday in New York. With Yahoo still working out what to do with its 15 percent stake, investors battered by the e-commerce company's $128.5 billion market slump are bracing for the worst, such as the possibility of more shares hitting the market and driving prices down further.
Billionaire founder Jack Ma and Vice-Chairman Joseph Tsai have pledged to keep their stock, while analysts expect SoftBank Group Corp to hold onto its shares as the Japanese company parlays its Alibaba windfall into global expansion. SoftBank declined to comment.