Even though Alibaba's importance has to do with more than Yahoo, the two companies are intimately tied. Yahoo owns a 22.6 percent stake in the company. After Alibaba's IPO, Yahoo could end up with $12 billion in cash on its balance sheet, according to Carlos Kirjner, an analyst at Sanford C. Bernstein & Co. Anticipation for the IPO has helped double Yahoo's stock in the last year, giving Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer, who took over the company in July 2012, a more valuable acquisition currency while she's tried to turn around the lumbering tech giant.