In what is widely expected to be the biggest technology IPO since Google and the biggest Internet IPO by a Chinese firm, Alibaba.com is ready to sell just over 850 million shares on the Hong Kong stock exchange. Those shares could fetch as much as $1.49 billion. Yahoo owns 39 percent of Alibaba Group, the parent of Alibaba.com, and has said it will buy about $100 million worth of shares in the offering. Trading is set to begin the first week of November.

Related Topics: Search Engines: Outside USA | Yahoo: Business Issues | Yahoo: Outside US

About The Author: Greg Sterling is a Contributing Editor at Search Engine Land. He writes a personal blog Screenwerk, about SoLoMo issues and connecting the dots between online and offline. He also posts at Internet2Go, which is focused on the mobile Internet. Follow him @gsterling. See more articles by Greg Sterling