The strong rumor is that Alibaba.com has won approval from the Hong Kong Stock Exchange for a long-anticipated IPO expected to be worth roughly $1 billion.

Alibaba Group, which is partly owned by Yahoo, plans to list its business-to-business operation, Alibaba.com, but does not plan to make its other units part of the initial public offering, one source said.

Jack Ma, seen here, founded Alibaba in his Hangzhou apartment in 1999 with 18 employees as an online business-to-business marketplace.

Now, Alibaba.com provides a platform for small and medium-sized buyers and suppliers from China and overseas for international and domestic online trading and employs 4,400 full-time staff.

Its marketplaces form a community of more than 24 million members globally.

Alibaba absorbed Yahoo’s China business in 2005, and Yahoo bought a 40% stake in Alibaba for $1 billion as part of that deal.
Source: Reuters