After weeks and months of anticipation, the initial public offering of e-commerce giant Alibaba finally arrived this morning with a jump in price that took industry observers by surprise. The stock price was originally valued at $68 per share but the price jumped to $92 per share immediately after it began trading late this morning.
So far, there have been no technology trading incidents from the New York Stock Exchange with shares trading smoothly without any interruptions or delays. This was welcome news for industry observers who noted that a technology glitch similar to Nasdaqs chaotic trading delays on the 2012 debut of Facebook could prove embarrassing for the NYSE where the Alibaba shares are listed and traded.
However, exchange rival Nasdaq did experience a stumble the moment Alibaba began trading this morning. Its first bid for the Chinese e-commerce firm was a high $150 per share but the market maker immediately scrubbed the price for a second official trade at $90.04 per share.
Nasdaq did not mention the incident on its website.
Responses to Nasdaqs micro glitch on Twitter were quick.
I dont think Nasdaq will ever live down the FB (Facebook) fiasco, tweeted Deidre Zune, adding after the BABA IPO shown on CNBC, every major co. would go with NYSE.
From Joe Saluzzis Twitter feed, the Themis Trading co-founder tweeted, Congratulations NYSE on the successful launch of BABA. Now thats how an exchange gets it done.
But not all tweets were snark aimed at Nasdaq. Some took time to note the excitement on the floor of the 222 year-old exchange.
Nice to see humans getting excited on the NYSE Floor, tweeted Ben White of Politico, Its like a throwback to the 1990s.
At presstime, Alibaba was trading at $92.67 per share.
