Alibaba’s announcement that it has experienced a 71 percent jump in quarterly sales to $1.4 billion has resulted in shares in its owner Yahoo rising more than ten percent on Wall Street. The figures eclipse those of Yahoo’s overall performance, which included a 13 percent fall in advertising revenue for the same period.
Formed in 1999, Alibaba is today the world’s largest internet retail firm with 25 businesses to its name and more than 24,000 employees. On the back of its recent success the retailer looks set to sell shares on the stock exchange for the first time later in 2013.
Given the company's strong growth analysts have been scrambling to raise their estimates with investment bank Evercore Partners raising its valuation of Alibaba to $120 billion.
Yahoo invested $1bn in Alibaba eight years ago in return for a 40 percent stake in the business. Today many analysts estimate that as much as half of Yahoo's value is accounted for by those shares of Alibaba.
