Coming to America: China's Alibaba to Buy Vendio in Expansion Move

Alibaba.com (ALBCF) plans to snap up fellow e-commerce company Vendio Services, marking the first U.S. acquisition for the Chinese giant as it seeks to expand its presence in America. Expect more deals and partnerships to emerge in the future as Alibaba views the U.S. as fertile hunting ground.

Vendio provides a platform for setting up online stores and resell goods via major e-tailers. The deal, announced Thursday, is designed to allow Vendio's more than 80,000 U.S. small business customers the ability to access Alibaba's network of wholesale suppliers through its AliExpress. And for AliExpress customers, they can funnel their goods through Vendio's software service for resale on Amazon.com (AMZN), eBay (EBAY), Google (GOOG) and other e-commerce sites.

Vendio is part of Alibaba's strategy to grow its AliExpress via a $100 million investment plan announced in April. Terms of the deal were not disclosed, and the companies expect to wrap it up next month. Vendio will become a business unit within Alibaba and retain its name and operations.