Chinese retail giant Alibaba has recently invested over $500
million into the smartphone maker Meizu, giving it a minority stake on the
company.
According to reports, the two companies will collaborate
both in terms of strategic and business levels to achieve a deeper integration
of Meizu’s hardware with Alibaba’s mobile operating system – YunOS, which is
based on Android.
At the same time, Meizu will be able to take advantage of
Alibaba’s wide market reach and various services much like how Amazon
envisioned its Firephone. Alibaba isn’t providing details on how much equity it
got for its investment.
