Alibaba Group spent $294 million last week as part of a move that made the family of Internet businesses the largest single shareholder in Beijing-based navigation and location service provider AutoNavi.
“Our new alliance with Alibaba highlights the importance of map applications as a key entry point for mobile services in the age of smartphones,” Congwu Cheng, AutoNavi’s CEO, said in a release.
The agreement will allow the companies to share certain data as well as collaborate on map engines, location searches and cloud computing services, the document says.
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