Alibaba to buy 20-30% in Chinese digital mapping and navigation firm AutoNavi
10 May 2013
Alibaba Group, China's largest e-commerce company run by Jack Ma, is said to be planning to acquire 20- to 30-per cent stake in Chinese digital mapping and navigation firm AutoNavi Holdings Ltd, according to several local media reports. The purchase would make Alibaba the largest shareholder of Nasdaq-listed AutoNavi after the company's CEO, Jun Hou, who holds 16.7- per cent stake.
With AutoNavi stock price being traded at $14.76 per share, the deal would be valued at around $150 million to $250 million.
The move comes after Alibaba last month acquired an 18-per cent stake in Chinese Twitter-like microblogging site Sina Corp's Weibo (see: Alibaba Group to buy 18% in Chinese Twitter-like site Weibo for $586 mn).
Beijing-based AutoNavi, which completed a $100 million IPO in 2010, is the most popular mapping app in China and competes with those of Google, Baidu and others.
It holds a 45-per cent market share according to research firm Analysys International and passed 100 million downloads in January.
Apart from its mapping and navigation app, AutoNavi has business deals with other tech companies like Apple, Micosoft's Bing, Chinese search giant Baidu and Sina. It provides built-in data in Apple iOS 6 and Google users in China, as well as mapping services to Baidu.
