Alibaba to invest US$590m in China smartphone maker

Hong Kong

ALIBABA Group Holding has agreed to invest US$590 million in smartphone maker Meizu Technology Co, boosting the e-commerce company's push to get its mobile operating system on millions of handsets in China.

Asia's largest Internet company will hold a minority stake in Meizu and integrate the smartphone's hardware with Alibaba's YunOS software, Alibaba said in an e-mailed statement on Monday. Meizu, which last year released the MX4 and Meizu Blue Charm, didn't rank among China's top five smartphone manufacturers as of the September quarter, according to researcher Canalys.