1 Once upon a time, when you bought broccoli you bought the whole vegetable, stems and crowns. Then it became customary for grocery store produce departments to separate the crowns from the stems and to sell the crowns at a premium. 2  Iâm not a fan of this practice, because I like both parts of the broccoli plant.
A company's first issue of common stock to the public is called an Initial Public Offering. Afterwards, a corporation may issue new equity at any time in order to finance its growth. When new common shares are offered to existing shareholders first, this is called a rights offering.
Letâs look at the price youâll have to pay for the shares, and then analyze whether theyâre possibly worth it. Alibaba and its bankers state that the offering will be priced at somewhere between $60 and $66 a share, with the exact number to be set the day before trading begins. Itâs likely that the shares will jump as soon as they start trading, since demand for the offering is robust.