Alibaba acquires food delivery startup Ele.me for $9.5bn

Beijing April 2 (IANS) E-commerce giant Alibaba on Monday announced it will acquire full ownership of China s leading online food delivery startup Ele.me for $9.5 billion.

The e-commerce giant and its affiliate Ant Financial currently own about 43 per cent of the outstanding voting shares of Ele.me Alibaba said in a statement.

"Ele.me can leverage Alibaba s infrastructure in commerce and find new synergies with Alibaba s diverse businesses to add further momentum to the New Retail initiative " Alibaba Group CEO Daniel Zhang said.

With a large delivery force in cities across China Ele.me s fast local delivery services will build on its core expertise in food delivery to provide consumers with a wider range of products and services on-demand.

"We share the same strategic vision that New Retail has a bright future and being part of Alibaba s ecosystem will take Ele.me s growth to a new level " said Zhang Xuhao founder of Ele.me.

Ele.me will continue to operate as its own brand but will combine some services with Koubei Alibaba s affiliated local services platform.

After the acquisition Zhang Xuhao will become chairperson of Ele.me and special advisor to Alibaba s CEO on New Retail strategy. Wang Lei vice president of Alibaba Group will become CEO of Ele.me.

Ele.me took over Baidu Waimai Baidu s food delivery unit last year in an industry consolidation Xinhua news agency reported.

--IANS
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