Alibaba Group Holding Ltd, China's largest e-commerce firm, offered to purchase AutoNavi Holdings Ltd in a deal valuing the Chinese digital mapping and navigation firm at $1.58 billion.Alibaba, which already owns 28 percent of AutoNavi, has been trying to expand its product line-up to better compete with Chinese rivals Tencent Holdings Ltd and Baidu Inc .Baidu started offering its map software for free last August, challenging AutoNavi's dominance in the Chinese navigation market.AutoNavi followed suit by offering its own navigation software for free.
Baidu, Inc. (Baidu) is a Chinese-language Internet search provider. Shares of BIDU traded higher by 2.22% or $3.585/share to $164.72. In the past year, the shares have traded as low as $82.98 and as high as $185.50. On average, 3506490 shares of BIDU exchange hands on a given day and today's volume is recorded at 1975406.
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