RTXZICZ
Alibaba's new leader, Jonathan Lu, with its legendary founder Jack Ma in the background. REUTERS/China Daily

Goldman Sachs doubled its estimated value of Alibaba, China’s e-commerce giant, on Monday, to $70 billion from $35 billion earlier. Goldman Sachs made the assessment in a report for Yahoo (Nasdaq: YHOO).

Lu And Ma
Jonathan Lu, right, Alibaba's new leader, with Jack Ma, its legendary founder in the background Reuters/China Daily

Alibaba was founded in 1999 by Jack Ma, who recently stepped down as the company’s CEO. Alibaba owns Alibaba.com, a B2B portal, and Taobao.com, China’s largest B2C platform. The company acquired Yahoo China in 2005 and recently purchased 18 percent of Weibo, China’s most popular microblogging site, owned by Sina (Nasdaq:SINA).

Alibaba has been gearing up to complete its IPO this year, with estimates as high up as $100 billion. Goldman Sachs is a top U.S. investment bank.