Alibaba Stock to Trade on NYSE

The highly anticipated Alibaba stock will be coming to the New York Stock Exchange, according to a report today (Thursday) from Bloomberg.

The report indicates that the Chinese e-commerce giant could announce the decision in a revised IPO prospectus as early as this afternoon.

"We participated in a comprehensive and deliberate exchange selection process and we are pleased to welcome Alibaba Group to the New York Stock Exchange where they will join our network of the world's best companies and leading brands," NYSE officials said.

For the Nasdaq, missing out on a huge tech company like Alibaba is a major blow to the exchange.

The NYSE and Nasdaq have different regulations and charge different fees for companies that would like to be listed. The NYSE typically attracts companies with higher market capitalization than the Nasdaq, but that hasn't stopped huge tech companies like Facebook Inc. (Nasdaq: FB) and Google Inc. (Nasdaq: GOOG, GOOGL) from listing on the Nasdaq.

Alibaba StockMost analysts expect the Alibaba IPO to be among the largest tech IPOs in U.S. history, and possibly even the biggest U.S. IPO ever. Some estimates place the e-commerce IPO over $20 billion, which would eclipse the $19.65 billion Visa Inc. (NYSE: V) raised in its 2008 IPO. Facebook currently holds the record for largest tech IPO, having raised $16 billion in 2012.

This week, the research firm Morningstar released one of the most bullish estimates yet, claiming the Alibaba IPO could raise an astonishing $26 billion. That would make it the world's largest IPO, smashing the record $22.1 billion the Agricultural Bank of China raised in 2010.

Valuation estimates on the company have topped $160 billion, and some optimistic estimates top $200 billion. Financial research company Sanford C. Bernstein has valued the Chinese firm at an incredible $230 billion.

For the NYSE, landing the Alibaba IPO is a major success - because the size, scope, and potential for Alibaba are enormous...

What Alibaba Stock Brings to the NYSE

Alibaba is the largest e-commerce company in China, which was a $210 billion industry in 2012. According to research firm McKinsey & Co., that number is expected to reach $420 billion by 2020.

That industry growth is huge for Alibaba, because more than 80% of all online retail transactions in China take place on its network of sites.

When Alibaba updated its IPO filing last week it pointed out that its most popular site, Taobao, handled $177 billion in transactions in 2013. Approximately $70 billion exchanged hands in 2013 over Alibaba's second largest site, Tmall. For perspective, Amazon.com Inc. (Nasdaq: AMZN) handled $100 million and eBay Inc. (Nasdaq: EBAY) handled $54 billion.

Alibaba IPOThose huge transaction totals have translated to huge revenue figures for Alibaba. In its initial IPO filing, the company reported revenue of $5.66 billion and net income of $2.85 billion for the nine months ending Dec. 31.

"You're talking about a company that is going to come out with the size, scope, and scale to eat Amazon, eBay, and Facebook and still have room for lunch," Money Morning's Chief Investment Strategist Keith Fitz-Gerald said on FOX Business' "Varney & Co." "Alibaba controls an extraordinary 2% of Chinese GDP all by itself, and they're just getting started."

"In contrast to a lot of the other social media IPOs or e-IPOs, this one I'm actually very excited about because there is real revenue backing this thing up, and there's 800 million Chinese citizens coming online by the end of this year," Fitz-Gerald added.

And the best news about this looming IPO is that it has created a major profit opportunity that most investors haven't yet noticed... It's happening now, months before Alibaba hits the market...

In fact, this could be your one and only chance to make the kind of gains normally reserved for the high-net-worth investors and bankers. You can learn more about this Alibaba profit play here.

Do you plan on investing in the Alibaba IPO when Alibaba stock hits the NYSE? Join the conversation on Twitter @moneymorning using #Alibaba.

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