Shares of the Chinese e-commerce company, Alibaba, will be up for grabs today when the U.S. market opens. That's in about an hour or so from now.
Priced at $68 a share, the stock has already made history as the largest IPO ever in the U.S.
If underwriters choose to buy their allotted shares, Alibaba could become the world's largest IPO.
The company [is] now valued at a whopping $168 billion, and that trumps fellow Internet retailer, Amazon.
Well, when the bell starts ringing on the New York Stock Exchange day, Alibaba's war chest will get a lot bigger. It's already pretty big.
Also, so does the wallet of the company's cofounder, Jack Ma.
Jim Boulden now takes a look back at the entrepreneur's journey to success.
Jack Ma says he tested his vision for his Internet site 15 years ago on the streets of San Francisco when he asked strangers if they knew the word "Alibaba."
He got the answer he wanted: Alibaba and "Open, Sesame" -- the ability to gain access to all kinds of treasure.
Today, Alibaba is China's Amazon, eBay and PayPal all in one, all started by this one-time English teacher.
I am a 100 percent made in China.
Jack Ma has not been under the radar.
In 2005, the World Economic Forum named him a Young Global Leader.
Businessweek named him Businessperson of the Year in 2007.
He was one of Time magazine's top 100 influential people in 2009.
Ma may only be 49,
but he's already done a Bill Gates and retired as CEO of the company he helped found, taking on the role of executive chairman.
You know, the thing about Jack Ma and the thing about Alibaba is they're not... he's not particularly an inventor.
What he's done is he's come in, used existing technologies and beat some people at their own game. So, that's really what his genius is.
Estimates of his wealth vary widely.
One ranks Ma as China's 29th-richest man at $4 billion.
Forbes says number six at nearly $9 billion.
Bloomberg has him third in China at nearly $13 billion.
No matter, his ranking could greatly change by the price of the shares and options over the long run.
You have to work very hard.
He's also noted for his charitable endeavors.
Ma has already established a charitable trust fund worth an estimated two percent of his share options of Alibaba,
which could fund the trust north of $3 billion.
With the rest of the money he and Alibaba raise from this IPO, expansion of the company is certainly on the cards.