E-commerce giant Alibaba said it will buy the remaining shares of UCWeb, a browser maker and app distributor in which it already owns about 66 per cent.

In a microblog post, Alibaba said the “integration will create the biggest merger in the history of China’s Internet”.

Alibaba, as reported by Reuters, said the deal would be even larger even than Baidu’s $1.9 billion acquisition of 91 Wireless last year.

The deal is to be done using mainly Alibaba’s stock and some cash.

Increased investment in UCWeb is a concerted effort by Alibaba to make greater inroads into m-commerce in its domestic market.

Alibaba and UCWeb will form the UCWeb Mobile Business Group, which, said UCWeb, is to be responsible for internet browsers, search services, location-based services, the mobile gaming platform, mobile application distribution and “mobile literature services”.

UCWeb chief executive Yu Yongfu will act as chairman of the business group and become part of Alibaba’s “strategic decision-making committee”.

Ahead of its much anticipated US listing, Alibaba also announced it was ready to roll out its first online marketplace in the US, dubbed 11Main.com.