All that competition is driving the valuation massively upwards, too.
The rumors have been flying about this huge financing deal for the past month or so, with multiple publications reporting that Ant — which has been strongly linked with an IPO — was in the market to raise at least $9 billion at a valuation of upwards of $100 billion.
"With an attractive valuation, a strong likelihood of upwards earnings revisions and a bear case not likely to get much worse near term, we think Comcast goes higher," wrote the analyst in a recent report.
This follows on from reports from us and others that it was raising funding at upwards of a $2 billion valuation — a massive premium on its $1.12 billion valuation in October 2014.
Blended together, Elevation's 7.5 million shares were purchased at a $14 billion valuation, and Facebook is trading at upwards of $24 billion on the secondary market today.
Telecom junk-bond yields shot upwards, while the upstarts' stock valuations plunged.
The size of the deal is undisclosed and an Alibaba spokesperson declined to provide details when we asked, however financial news site Caixin reports [Google Translate] that it is upwards of 10 billion yuan ($1.54 billion) at a 50 billion yuan ($7.7 billion) valuation.
Social Point has at times been referred to as the "Zynga of Europe", although its growth and valuation (and general fortunes) have been far more rational and steady (steadily growing upwards, that is).
Given its international ambitions, it is likely that within two years Groupon will have upwards of 20,000 employees outside of the U.S. A potential $25 billion IPO valuation awaits it for going global faster than its peers.
Founded in 2013 by Lore, Mike Hanrahan and Nate Faust, the company had raised hundreds of millions of dollars (upwards of $500 million, but possibly more like $800 million unreported) at a steadily rising valuation before finally launching in July 2015.
