What the Alibaba IPO Means

After months of anticipation, it finally happened: The Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Group filed paperwork on Tuesday in the United States to go public. The move is "an embrace of the global capital markets that represents a coming-of-age for China's booming internet industry." In the filing, Alibaba said it intended to raise $1 billion in an initial public offering — a figure used to calculate its registration fee. But the company is expected ultimately to raise $15 billion to $20 billion, which would make it the biggest American IPO since Facebook's $16 billion offering in May 2012.