Alibaba surges on the NYSE

NEW YORK — Alibaba's stock is surging as the Chinese e-commerce powerhouse begins its first day trading as a public company.

The stock opened at $92.70 and nearly hit $100 on the New York Stock Exchange Friday, a gain of 46 percent from the initial $68 per share price set Thursday evening.

At Friday's opening price, the company is worth $228.5 billion, more than companies such as Amazon, Ebay and even Facebook.

Jubilant CEO Jack Ma stood on the NYSE trading floor Friday as eight Alibaba customers, including an American cherry farmer and a Chinese Olympian, rang the opening bell from the floor of the New York Stock Exchange.

"We want to be bigger than Wal-Mart," Ma told CNBC shortly after the opening Bell. "We hope in 15 years people say this is a company like Microsoft, IBM, Wal-Mart, they changed, shaped the world."

On Thursday, Alibaba and the investment bankers arranging the IPO settled on a price of $68 per share. The company and its early investors raised $21.8 billion in the offering, which valued Alibaba at $168 billion in one of the world's biggest ever initial public offerings.

But after a two-hour trading delay due to strong demand, it opened much higher than that price.

Chinese e-commerce powerhouse Alibaba will say "open sesame" to the New York Stock Exchange on Friday, as its shares begin trading in a highly anticipated debut that could raise up to $25 billion.

The company priced its initial public offering of stock Thursday evening at $68 per share, the top end of the expected price range, according to Alibaba. The shares will trade under the ticker "BABA" on the NYSE. The IPO values Alibaba at $167.62 billion. That's bigger than the current market value of companies such as Amazon, Cisco, and eBay.

The company has enjoyed a surge in U.S. popularity over the past two weeks as investors met with executives, including its colorful founder Jack Ma. As part of the so-called roadshow, would-be investors heard a sales pitch that centered on Alibaba's strong revenue growth and seemingly endless possibilities for expansion. Demand has been so high that the company raised its expected offering price to $66 to $68 per share from $60 to $66 per share on Monday, setting the stage for what could be the biggest ever IPO.

Alibaba said it is offering 320.1 million shares for a total offering size of $21.77 billion. Underwriters have a 30-day option to buy up to about 48 million more shares. That means the offering size could be as much as $25 billion.

The main reason investors appear breathless about the 15-year old Alibaba: It offers an investment vehicle that taps into China's burgeoning middle-class.

Alibaba's Taobao, TMall and other platforms account for some 80 percent of Chinese online commerce. Most of Alibaba's 279 million active buyers visit the sites at least once a month on smartphones and other mobile devices, making the company attractive to investors as computing shifts away from laptop and desktop machines.

And the growth rate is not expected to mature anytime soon. Online spending by Chinese shoppers is forecast to triple from its 2011 size by 2015. Beyond that, Alibaba has said it plans to expand into emerging markets and eventually, Europe and the U.S.

"There are very few companies that are this big, grow this fast, and are this profitable," said Wedbush analyst Gil Luria.

Alibaba operates an online ecosystem that lets individuals and small businesses buy and sell. It doesn't directly sell anything, compete with its merchants, or hold inventory.

"The business model is really interesting. It's not just an eBay, it's not an Amazon, it's not a Paypal. It's all of that and much more," said Reena Aggarwal, a professor at Georgetown.

Like China's consumer and Internet market, Alibaba is still growing rapidly. The company's revenue in its latest quarter ending in June surged 46 percent from last year to $2.54 billion while its earnings climbed 60 percent to nearly $1.2 billion, after subtracting a one-time gain and certain other items.

In its last fiscal year ending March 31, Alibaba earned $3.7 billion, making it more profitable than eBay Inc. and Amazon.com Inc. combined. Amazon ended Thursday with a market value of about $150 billion while eBay's market value stood at $67 billion.

Alibaba, is based in Hangzhou in Eastern China, Ma's hometown. The company got started in 1999 when Ma and 17 friends developed a fledgling e-commerce company on the cusp of the Internet boom. Today, Alibaba's main platforms are its original business-to-business service Alibaba.com, consumer-to-consumer site Taobao and TMall, a place for brands to sell to consumers.

And while there's plenty of growth left in China, Ma has recently hinted about plans to expand beyond those borders.

"We hope to become a global company, so after we go public in the U.S., we will expand strongly in Europe and America," Ma said to a group of reporters in Kowloon on Monday.

The IPO's fundraising target handily eclipses the $16 billion Facebook raised in 2012, the most for a technology IPO. If all of its underwriters' options are exercised, it would also top the all-time IPO fundraising record of $22.1 billion set by the Agricultural Bank of China Ltd. in 2010.

Alibaba is offering up to 368 million shares, about 15 percent of the roughly 2.5 billion that will be outstanding after the IPO.

Alibaba plans to sell 123 million of those shares itself. The rest will be offered by the company's early investors, including Yahoo Inc., which is parting with some of its 22 percent stake.

Yahoo stands to be a big winner. The U.S. company, which has been struggling to grow for years, is in line for a windfall of $8.28 billion by selling 121.7 million of is Alibaba shares. And founder Jack Ma is selling 12.75 million shares worth $867 million.

Although the IPO is likely to be the biggest in history, some analysts think the pricing is conservative. Wedbush's Luria gives the stock a 1-year price target of $80. And research firm PrivCo said the stock is worth $100 a share because of all of the private companies that Alibaba has taken stakes in.

On Friday, Alibaba and its bankers will try to avoid mishaps like the ones that plagued Facebook's stock debut on the Nasdaq in May 2012. The social networking company's first day of trading was marred by technical glitches. Despite an IPO that was hyped even more than Alibaba's, Facebook's stock closed just 23 cents above its $38 IPO price on that first day and later fell much lower. The stock took more than a year to climb back above $38.

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The Kuro taste: Peppery tang and hint of squid ink

TOKYO — The first Kuro, or black, burger had a black bun and sauce. Last year's edition, the Kuro Ninja, added a slice of (non-black) bacon to the signature black components. Now Burger King Japan is going black on black.

The fast-food chain added black cheese and darkened the other ingredients in the special burger duo added to menus Friday. Marketing Manager Kana Ienega said Burger King Japan wants people to try the burger and find it tasty even though it may look unappetizing at first.

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WHAT'S IT MADE OF?

The Kuro Pearl is simple with a black pepper beef patty covered with Chaliapin (onion and soy) sauce infused with squid ink. Its black cheese and buns are colored with bamboo charcoal. The Kuro Diamond is the same burger, topped with lettuce, tomatoes, onions, and mayonnaise.

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HOW DOES IT TASTE?

Peppery. If you can get past the shocking color, it's not bad. The black pepper in the patty hits you at the first bite and complements the tangy sauce, with its hint of squid ink. The Kuro Diamond is juicier, with extra sauce and mayonnaise. But if you're expecting a totally different taste just because of the color, it might fall below expectations.

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WHAT DO CUSTOMERS THINK?

Eating one in Tokyo's bustling Shinjuku district, Kuah Kia Wei, a 14-year-old student from Malaysia, says, "I like it because it has a very interesting taste to it and it's nothing that I've tasted before."

Bernice Chua, a 25-year-old fashion designer and illustrator from Singapore, says, "the best part is actually the sauce, it's not really about the buns because you don't really taste the bamboo charcoal inside, but I think the sauce really makes up for it."

Julien Tirode, a 37-year-old event planner from France, says, "I'm a little disappointed because to me, it has no special taste or anything. Yes, the burger is black, the cheese is black, there's little black stuff in the meat, but (other than that) that, there's nothing special to me."

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WHERE CAN I GET IT?

The burgers are available in Japan until November. The Kuro Pearl retails for 480 yen ($4.39) and the Kuro Diamond for 690 yen ($6.31). It's not clear why black burgers are a hit in Japan, but quirky food and drink products such as square watermelons, green tea candy bars and ice cucumber Pepsi are commonly sold.

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Prostate cancer death rate in Boston puzzles researchers

Despite its status as a health care mecca, the Boston area has some of the highest numbers of prostate cancer-related deaths in the state, according to a local nonprofit health group.

"If you look at prostate cancer mortality rates, you will see that statewide data would be probably lowest nationally. But if you start looking at Suffolk County, Boston specifically, that's where the data are the worst," said Dr. Faina Shtern, president of AdMeTech Foundation, a nonprofit supporting early detection and treatment of diseases.

According to Shtern, Franklin County in western Massachusetts has the highest mortality rate at 28.8 percent, with Suffolk County a close second at 26.9 percent.

The numbers are based on data from the American Cancer Society, the state Department of Public Health and the National Cancer Institute.

Shtern, who formerly served as director of radiology research at the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, said the reason behind these high numbers is unclear.

She said it was initially suspected that the high incidence of prostate cancer among African-American men — who are 60 percent more likely to develop it and 240 percent more likely to die of it than white men — played a role, but that would not explain the high rates in Franklin County.

According to 2010 data from the U.S. Census Bureau, 24.5 percent of Suffolk County identified as black or African-American, but only 1.4 percent of Franklin County identified as the same.

"There is absolutely no scientific evidence of any kind that would indicate why this is happening," Shtern said.

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Alibaba’s IPO to rock NYSE today

Shares of Alibaba Group Holding will start trading today on the New York Stock Exchange after the Chinese e-commerce juggernaut yesterday priced its initial public offering at $68 per share — the high end of its expected range — to raise $21.8 billion in the largest U.S.-listed IPO.

The price gives the 15-year-old Alibaba a market valuation of $167.6 billion, bigger than that of Amazon, Cisco and eBay. And it has the potential to break the global IPO record if more shares are sold to underwriters.

Little known in the United States, Alibaba controls 80 percent of online sales in China, the world's second-largest economy. Its businesses include consumer online marketplace Taobao and wholesale online marketplace Alibaba.com.

Former English teacher Jack Ma started Alibaba in his apartment with $60,000.

Its revenue in the quarter that ended in June climbed 46 percent from last year to $2.54 billion, while earnings grew 60 percent to almost $1.2 billion. Alibaba earned $3.7 billion in its last fiscal year — more than Amazon and eBay combined.

"There are very few companies that are this big, grow this fast, and are this profitable," Wedbush analyst Gil Luria said.

Analysts at Cambridge's Forrester Research don't see Alibaba as a threat to U.S. companies in the short-term. Though Alibaba has expansion plans outside China — and has made a string of investments in American companies — it would take "either a major acquisition or a number of years for Alibaba to pull together a platform that could compete with major U.S. companies like Amazon, Apple, eBay and Facebook," the Forrester analysts said in a recent report.

But Alibaba's China business continues to grow, and it will remain a critical partner for brands entering the Chinese e-commerce space, they said.

The U.S can expect to see many more U.S. IPOs by Chinese companies, according to technology forecaster Daniel Burrus of Burrus Research Associates. "And they will be well-funded, and they will be big," he said.

Herald wire services were used in this report.

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New wearable gadgets protecting athletes

Wearable gadgets such as the new Apple Watch and Google Glass have become must-have toys for technophiles, but athletes are making use of a whole new class of wearables to improve their performance and potentially help save them from serious injury, a former NFL linebacker said yesterday at MITX's FutureM conference.

A year before growing awareness of the dangers of concussions prompted the Boston City Council to pass an ordinance this week barring college athletes from re-entering games when they lose consciousness or sustain a suspected concussion, the Cambridge electronics company MC10 teamed up with Reebok on the Reebok Checklight, a skullcap tucked under a player's helmet and embedded with sensors that measure the force of a head impact during play. A light on the cap turns yellow if the impact is moderate and red if the impact is severe.

"No one wants to come out and say they've been hurt," said Isaiah Kacyvenski, who sustained seven diagnosed concussions during his eight-year NFL career and is now head of MC10's Sports and Fitness Segment. "So the light stays on until you've been checked out."

Later this year, the company plans to launch a headband version of the Checklight for soccer and basketball players, Kacyvenski said. And in 2015, it expects to launch Biostamp, a Band-Aid-like patch that can record data such as heart rate, muscle activity and hydration level, he said. At another FutureM panel discussion yesterday, Peter Stringer, the Celtics' senior director of digital media, and Timothy Zue, Red Sox vice president of business development, talked about ways they're using technology to try to improve fans' experience.

A first-of-its-kind, 30-minute, live, pre-game mobile application show called "Home Court Advantage presented by American Express" gives Celtics fans insider access to their favorite players before each home game, while the MLB.com free "At the Ballpark" app gives Sox fans mobile check-in, social media, offers, rewards and exclusive content.

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Review: Larger iPhones eliminate reason to switch

NEW YORK — It's easy to dismiss Apple's new iPhones as merely catching up to Android.

After all, phones running Google's Android system long have had larger screens. In addition, many Android phones already have the wireless chips that iPhones are getting for making credit card payments without pulling out a card at retail stores.

But the new iPhones are a big deal for one simple reason: Only Apple has the advantage of building both the hardware and the software, so iPhones are easier to use and more dependable.

There are many flavors of Android out there, and some phones won't run the latest apps or work with accessories such as smartwatches. In addition, many leading apps come to the iPhone first or have features exclusive to iPhones.

There are still reasons to go with Android. Samsung's flagship phones are still slightly larger than the new iPhones, for instance. Their cameras have higher megapixel counts — though that's just one factor in what makes a good photo.

What the new iPhones do is eliminate screen size as a reason to avoid iPhones.

The question, then, becomes: Which one?

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— Size considerations.

The iPhone 5, 5s and 5c have screens measuring 4 inches diagonally. The iPhone 6 boosts that to 4.7 inches, while the iPhone 6 Plus is at 5.5 inches. Yet the new phones are thinner than the smaller models.

Apple gets rid of glass in the back in favor of an all-aluminum body with curved edges. The new iPhones don't feel as boxy as previous models.

And the new phones make good use of the larger screens. Those with poorer eyesight can choose a "zoom" option so that everything gets blown up to fill the extra space, just like larger Android phones. Otherwise, you can fit in more content, including an extra row of icons on the home screen.

The iPhone 6 Plus also allows apps to rearrange their layout in horizontal mode. Content appears in two columns, so you're not switching back and forth as much. The drawback: The Plus is huge for those who don't regularly carry a backpack or purse.

I personally find past iPhones easier to carry and fit in the pocket, especially when I go out running. Apple will still make last year's 5s and 5c available, at reduced prices. The 5c is essentially 2-year-old technology, so the 5s is the better option.

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— New features.

The 5s doesn't have the new iPhones' faster processors, but speed should be adequate for the next year or two. But here's what you'll miss, besides the bigger screen:

Only the new phones have the mobile payments technology, so you can start using Apple Pay next month. A new barometer sensor measures elevation, so fitness apps can credit you for climbing stairs and hills.

Where the new phones shine is in the camera. Although the rear cameras stay at 8 megapixels, compared with 16 megapixels in the flagship Samsung phones, performance has improved.

Both phones have new technology for faster and more accurate focus. The Plus model also has a physical image stabilizer to help reduce shake, especially in low-light settings. The iPhone 5s and 6 use software tricks to do that.

I took the iPhone 5s, 6 and 6 Plus, the Samsung Galaxy S5 and Microsoft's Lumia Icon to Central Park to take about 250 photos and 30 videos.

In my limited tests, photos on the new iPhones weren't noticeably better, but that's because the 5s already takes good photos. The Icon takes better shots at night, but its response time is slow and night images sometimes look grainy and distorted. I have found the camera on the 5s to be consistently good, and the new iPhones won't disappoint.

Where improvement is obvious is in some new features:

— There's now a second slow-motion mode — for video at one-fourth the normal speed, rather than just half the speed in the 5s.

— A time-lapse feature lets you combine multiple still shots from the same location over a period of time. Think of those fast-moving videos showing an entire building being constructed in just a minute. I had fun making joggers in Central Park appear to be superhero fast.

— The front camera can now take 10 shots a second in a burst mode, matching what the rear camera can do. You can choose the best shot for selfies. The front camera also lets in more light than before.

The time-lapse and front burst features are part of the new iOS 8 software, so the iPhone 5s gets the improvements with a free download. All iOS 8 phones also have an easier way to adjust exposure, in case the sensors don't get it right.

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— Storage and pricing.

It's tempting to get the cheapest models with 16 gigabytes of storage — in the case of the iPhone 6, for $200 with a two-year service contract. But phones fill up quickly with photos, music and apps, and iPhones don't let you add storage.

Fortunately, Apple is doubling the storage for its top two models. So $300 at the contract price gets you 64 gigabytes instead of 32 GB, while $400 gets you 128 GB rather than 64 GB. I recommend getting at least 64 GB.

For the Plus models, add $100 to the price. If you don't want a contract with your carrier, add another $450 for an unlocked version.

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Yahoo rakes in another jackpot from Alibaba's IPO

SAN FRANCISCO — Yahoo is making amends for years of blundering with one smart move: an early investment in China's Alibaba Group that has turned into a multibillion-dollar boon.

The latest windfall will be delivered with Alibaba's record-setting IPO completed late Thursday, which is expected raise up to $25 billion for the e-commerce company and its early backers. Alibaba's shares will begin trading for the first time on Friday on the New York Stock Exchange.

Yahoo is in line to make anywhere from $8.3 billion to $9.5 billion from the initial public offering, depending on whether investment bankers exercise their right to buy additional stock in the deal. The payoff supplements the $7.6 billion jackpot that Yahoo collected two years ago after selling another chunk of its Alibaba holdings and reworked a licensing agreement with the Chinese company.

Even if Yahoo ends up selling its maximum allotment of 140 million shares in the IPO, the Sunnyvale, California, company will still retain a roughly 16 percent stake in Alibaba Group Ltd. worth another $26 billion to $27 billion.

Not a bad return, considering Yahoo acquired its Alibaba stake for $1 billion in 2005 in a deal engineered by company co-founder Jerry Yang and former CEO Terry Semel.

The Alibaba investment has helped ease the pain of Yahoo's struggles in Internet advertising, the heart of its business. Yahoo's annual revenue has slipped from a peak of $7.2 billion to projected $4.5 billion this year, a decline of nearly 40 percent.

The downturn has occurred even as advertisers steadily shift more of their budgets to the Internet and mobile devices, but most of that money is flowing to Yahoo rivals such as Google Inc. and Facebook Inc. —companies that have built more compelling digital services.

Yahoo has gone through seven different CEOs since 2006, including current leader Marissa Mayer, trying to figure out how to rejuvenate its growth.

Wall Street's exasperation with Yahoo's financial malaise caused the company's stock to sink below $9 in late 2008. The company's stock is now hovering around $43, a level that hasn't been touched since 2006. Most of the comeback occurred during the last two years as investors latched on to Yahoo's stock to profit from Alibaba's success leading up to the IPO.

Yahoo now must decide what to do with the money that will pour in from Alibaba's IPO. Mayer has promised that at least half the amount, after taxes, will be returned to shareholders through dividends or, more likely, buying back stock. That leaves open the possibility that Yahoo might use the rest of the money from the Alibaba IPO to help finance an acquisition of another Internet company such as AOL Inc. or a hot startup such as social media company Pinterest in its latest attempt to revive its business.

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Tia Carrere lists mountain top estate in Topanga

A little birdie landed in our digital mailbox this morning to let us know that two-time Grammy winning actress/singer Tia Carrere put her multi-acre estate in Topanga, CA, up for grabs at $2,595,000.

Property records show the season 5 "Celebrity Apprentice" contestant and second season "Dancing With the Stars" alum -- she was fired after the fifth task in the former and eliminated in the fifth round in the latter -- purchased the 2.99-acre mountain top spread in September 2005 for $1,625,000.

• SELLER: Tia Carrere
• LOCATION: Topanga, CA
• PRICE: $2,595,000
• SIZE: 3,587 square feet, 4 bedrooms, 4.5 bathrooms

The house, set privately down a long gated driveway, was originally built in 1980 according to listing details but has clearly been completely renovated as a crisp and angular contemporary with vaulted ceilings and gallery white walls. The living area is sky-light and voluminous with a cattywompus fireplace surmounted by a large, flat screen television. An adjoining, window-lined bay is designated as the dining area and leads into the sleek and slightly industrial, tile-floored kitchen fitted with shiny, white, and hardware free cabinetry, seal grey solid surface counter tops and a full suite of medium-grade stainless steel appliances including a pair of side-by-side fridge/freezers.

Listing details show the 3,587 square foot abode has four en suite bedrooms (plus a powder pooper) including an unconventionally shaped master bedroom on the main floor with sitting area and a second, also unusually-shaped master on the upper floor with direct access to a huge terrace with panoramic views over and down the mountains to the Pacific Ocean.

The Hawaii-born knock out, maybe best known for her role as Cassandra Wong in the "Wayne's World" movies, installed a battery of body-modifying fitness equipment in the garage and the rear of the residence opens to a flat, grassy yard. A lounge terrace with cushioned, built in bench seating around a fire pit that overlooks a lap lane swimming pool and a gated children's playground was placed under trees for shade. Set below the house there's a lighted and newly resurfaced north-south aligned tennis court.

© 2014 Variety Media, LLC, a subsidiary of Penske Business Media; Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC

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Head of Boston chamber of commerce stepping down

BOSTON — Paul Guzzi  is stepping down as president and chief executive of the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce, one of the region's more influential business groups.

The chamber announced on Thursday that Guzzi was retiring after 18 years at the helm.

The 72-year-old Newton resident began his career in politics as a state lawmaker, and was elected Massachusetts Secretary of State in 1974. After an unsuccessful run for the U.S. Senate, he served as chief of staff to Democratic Gov. Edward King.

A search committee led by John Fish, chief executive of Suffolk Construction, and Karen Kaplan, chief executive of Hill, Holiday, has been formed to find a successor to Guzzi.

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Apple fans line Boylston Street for new phones

Hundreds of Apple fanatics lined up outside the Apple store on Boylston St. this morning, braving the 50-degree temperatures to be the first to get their hands on the new iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus.

The line wrapped around Boylston, Fairfield St. and Newbury St. Apple employees applauded as the first person in line was welcomed into the store.

The new phones feature iOS 8 and the iPhone 6 Plus features a 5.5 inch screen.

The iPhones are also available to purchase online.

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