Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer is advising e-commerce giant Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. on a $590 million investment in Chinese smartphone maker Meizu Technology Corp. Ltd.
Alibaba did not disclose the size of the stake is was acquiring in Meizu, which is a much smaller player in the smartphone manufacturing space than rivals Xiaomi Inc., Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd. and Lenovo Group Ltd. According to a Reuters report, Meizu increased its phone shipments to 2 million in the last quarter of 2014 from a few hundred thousand in recent years, however it still has less than a 2 percent share of the Chinese market.
