The Chinese are coming! E-commerce giant Alibaba cleans house with its initial public offering

The Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba has made the largest U.S.-listed initial public offering (IPO) of all time, with stocks priced at $68 per share, signaling a strong demand.

LOS ANGELES, CA (Catholic Online) - Only large investors, like hedge funds, can typically afford to purchase stocks at this IPO price, and Alibaba's shares will begin trading on September 19 under the ticker symbol "BABA" on the New York Stock Exchange.

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Alibaba's IPO raised $21.8 billion, the largest amount ever for a company on an American exchange. If you include shares that investment banks have the option to purchase, that IPO would raise to $25 billion, a world record.

Founded by a former English teacher, Jack Ma, Alibaba is now one of the biggest tech companies in the world. But even if you've never heard of it, you aren't alone.

Alibaba is described as a mash-up of Ebay, Amazon and Paypal, though it has little presence in the U.S.--however this is expected to change soon-currently it even owns a stake in the ride-sharing service Lyft.

Now, Alibaba is hitting the open market with the likes of established Silicon Valley companies. This IPO values the Chinese company at $167.6 billion, that's more than double eBay's $64 billion market value, and tops the market cap of 20-year-old Amazon.com.

This IPO also values Alibaba's price-to-earnings multiple at 44, based on the company's earnings for the 12 months that ended in March.

The value of all merchandise changing hands on Alibaba totaled $248 billion in 2013, according to some estimates. That's a greater number than the combined gross merchandise volume of Amazone.com, eBay, JD.com and Rakuten-a Japanese e-commerce company.

The founder of Alibaba, Ma, is making a fortune on the IPO. He is selling 12.75 million shares in the deal, which is going to earn him $867 million, and will keep an 8% stake in his company.

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