Alibaba buys mobile browser firm UCWeb, gains 500 million users

June 11, 2014

China’s Alibaba Group is buying UCWeb, one of the nation’s top mobile browser companies, in a deal that will give the e-commerce giant a bigger reach with smartphone users.It’s unclear how much Alibaba is paying for the company, but it already owns a 66 percent stake in UCWeb. As part of the deal, UCWeb will become UCWeb Mobile Business Group, an Alibaba unit, and be led by its existing CEO Yu Yongfu.In a Wednesday statement, Yu said the valuation “far exceeded” the US$1.9 billion Chinese search engine Baidu paid for two app stores last year, making the acquisition of UCWeb the largest in the country’s Internet industry. Close to 3,000 workers from UCWeb will join the e-commerce company.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Link: http://www.pcworld.com/article/2362160/alibaba-buys-mobile-browser-firm-ucweb-gains-500-million-users.html#tk.rss_all