Hey-o everyone out there in the big, big world!
I know I just posted on my blog a short while ago, but for some reason I'm finding it especially hard to sleep tonight so I thought I'd have another go here. It might a good thing too because there are still so many topics I want to explore and, alas, so little time. Before we go any further, though, it is 2:15 AM here so let it be known anything you don't like reading this time around will be blamed on lack of sleep. If you enjoy this particular post, though, it was all me :)
The title of this post might have some of you scratching your heads, and there's good reason for that. What would compel me to include three huge business giants (how's that for redundancy?), let alone to phrase it such that they seem on their way out? Well, for starters, Google, Ebay, and Exxon are doing fine as far as I know, and no demise is soon in the making for any of the companies. However, surprise surprise, guess who's come knocking on their door? It's China! Actually, forget a knock, this is an in-your-face bulldozing stiffarm/kick-the-door-down metaphor I'm employing. That's right, China is at it again in the business world.
Many of you probably already know what I'm referring to specifically, but whether you've heard or not, it's remarkable stuff to consider. Alibaba.com, the largest of China's e-commerce companies, doubled its stock price on its first day in the market in Hong Kong. In true colossal fashion, the initial public offering price of HK $13.50 leaped to around HK$30, making it the largest offering since Google. Ebay gets a shout-out in my blog because Alibaba.com own the Taobao website, a wildly popular internet auction site based in China (see Financial Times for full story: http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/00f7bd1c-8c1e-11dc-af4d-0000779fd2ac.html).
The craziest thing about all of this is that while boasting impressive numbers, this feat is not even the best China has seen before. Last year the Bank of China and the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China combined to had IPOs of HK$25 billion!
In other news, more China-based companies continue to dominate as of the past couple days. On November 5 PetroChina Co., an oil producer, debuted on the Shanghai market and, get this, nearly tripled in value AND become the first company worth $1 trillion (that's in US dollars. For more, see Bloomberg's coverage: http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=awaLHmbrWw8A). Among the profiteers of this boom was Warren Buffet, whose Berkshire Hathaway Co had a large staek in PetroChina and who sold on opening day to the tune of an eight-fold gain. The is a big "BUT/HOWEVER" point to make here, though. After this monster day for PetroChina, the stock came crashing down to earth in the NY Stock Exchange, sliding down ten percent. This was largely attributed a report by Bear Stearns that recommended investors sell because they foresaw no good explanation for Petro's vastly higher value in comparison to rivals like Exxon. But even with that PetroChina still trades with 70% higher earnings than Exxon, who before Petro was the largest company in the world in net worth.
Again, some more fat to chew, although this time around I'd saw it's more like a big, honking porterhouse fresh from the flames.
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