May 2012

Alibaba buys back half of Yahoo's 40 percent stake in the company for $7.1 billion. Yahoo is poised to pare 40 percent of its remaining Alibaba stake in the coming IPO.

Sina Weibo skyrockets in debut

Alibaba reports strong growth before IPO

June 2012

Alibaba delists Alibaba.com (1688.com) from the Hong Kong main board.

Alibaba, which held 73.12 percent of the site, buys back the remaining 26.88 percent from shareholders at HK$13.50 each, involving as much as HK$19.6 billion.

September 2013-October 2013

Alibaba had been in talks with the Hong Kong exchange's listing panel to establish a system whereby founder Jack Ma and other top executives could nominate most of the company's board and submit the proposed directors' slate to shareholders for a vote. Hong Kong doesn't allow the dual-class structure favored by Facebook Inc, Google Inc and other US-listed technology companies.

The disagreement between the two sides leads Alibaba to call off its IPO plan in Hong Kong in early October.

March 16, 2014

Alibaba officially confirms it will hold an initial public offering in the United States.

May 7, 2014

Alibaba files for the IPO in the US. The company hasn't decided whether to list its shares on the New York Stock Exchange or Nasdaq.