The largest stock offer in history has made Jack Ma, founder of e-commerce giant Alibaba, China’s richest person with a fortune of $25 billion.
Ma, who had to persuade friends to give him $60,000 to start Alibaba just 15 years ago after being rejected by US venture capitalists, now leads a company valued at more than $200bn after listing on the New York Stock Exchange Friday.
Ma reaped more than $800 million from selling shares through the initial public offering in Alibaba, based on company filings, with the value of his remaining stake of 7.8 per cent surging to more than $17bn by Monday.
