Alibaba unit buys Yueke to expand cinema reach

Alibaba Group Holding Ltd's cinema unit said on Tuesday that it has acquired a major cinema software service provider in China to further expand its presence in the nation's booming film market.

The Hong Kong-listed Alibaba Picture Group Ltd confirmed it has bought Guangdong Yueke Software Engineering Co for 830 million yuan ($134 million). The company, in which Alibaba owns a 60 percent stake, said when the deal is complete, Yueke will become its wholly owned subsidiary and offer better services to cinemas by taking advantage of its Internet resources.

Yueke, as a major software solution provider in China's film market, provides software support to more than 1,500 of 5,780 cinema theaters in China.