Technology News
By Paul Carsten BEIJING (Reuters) – Alibaba Group Holding Ltd [IPO-ALIB.N] said on Wednesday it will buy all the remaining shares of mobile browser firm UCWeb in the biggest merger in Chinese internet history, as the e-commerce giant steps up its spending spree ahead of its U.S. listing. Alibaba's latest deal, hot on the heels of a string of investments which already total $4.8 billion in the past six months, will be larger even than Baidu's $1.9 billion acquisition of 91 Wireless last year, Alibaba said. Alibaba's investment in UCWeb emphasises the company's push to do more business on mobile in the world's biggest smartphone market. But rival Tencent Holdings Ltd, China's biggest listed Internet firm, dominates smartphone screens with its near-ubiquitous mobile messaging app WeChat, a situation which Alibaba executives have publicly railed against.