Alibaba Group Holding Ltd acquired AutoNavi Holdings Limited (Amap) for $1.03 billion, a transaction completed in July 2014, structured as all cash, US$1,032 million (RMB6,348 million).
AutoNavi Holdings Limited (Amap) operates in Mapping & location-based services, is based in China. AutoNavi (Amap) is a Nasdaq-listed provider of digital map content and navigation and location-based services in China. Alibaba had held about 28% since 2013; in July 2014 it acquired all remaining shares in a take-private, making AutoNavi a wholly owned subsidiary and delisting it from Nasdaq.
The Company expected the acquisition to help develop online-to-offline/offline-to-online commerce and location-based services for its mobile user base; goodwill reflected expected synergies and workforce.
Owning the mapping layer underpins O2O commerce, logistics and mobile services.
The rationale for this transaction is to enable the Company to expand its products and services... to develop and provide online-to-offline/offline-to-online commerce and location-based services to its mobile commerce user base.Alibaba Group FY2015 Form 20-F, business combinations note
Advisory firms were not disclosed for this transaction.