1 Once upon a time, when you bought broccoli you bought the whole vegetable, stems and crowns. Then it became customary for grocery store produce departments to separate the crowns from the stems and to sell the crowns at a premium. 2  Iâm not a fan of this practice, because I like both parts of the broccoli plant.
A company's first issue of common stock to the public is called an Initial Public Offering. Afterwards, a corporation may issue new equity at any time in order to finance its growth. When new common shares are offered to existing shareholders first, this is called a rights offering.
The stock priced at $68 per share. That's at the top of the expected range, signaling strong demand. Only large investors like hedge funds are typically able buy at this IPO price. Alibaba's shares will begin trading Friday under the ticker symbol BABA on the New York Stock Exchange. At that point, anyone can buy the stock. The IPO deal raised $21.8 billion, the largest ever for a company listed on an American exchange.