Alibaba.com to buy stake in Chinese e-commerce firm

(Reuters) - China's top e-commerce company, Alibaba.com (1688.HK), agreed to buy a controlling stake in China Civilink (Cayman) in a deal that could be valued up to $79.1 million to expand its customer base.

In a separate statement, U.S. technology distributor Synnex Corp (SNX.N) said it was selling its 79 percent stake in China Civilink to Alibaba.com for about $60 million.

China Civilink operates in China as HiChina Web Solutions, an e-commerce company that provides domain name registration, web site hosting and design.

Alibaba.com will acquire 85 percent of HiChina for $63.8 million in cash, with an additional 14.67 percent retained by the founders of HiChina.

Dependent upon HiChina reaching certain performance targets, the founders of HiChina have an option to sell their interest in the company to Alibaba.com over the next three years for $15.3 million in cash.

The deal is expected to close before the end of 2009.

Yahoo Inc (YHOO.O) holds a 40 percent stake in Alibaba Group, the unlisted parent company of Alibaba.com.

Synnex purchases information technology systems and peripherals from manufacturers such as Hewlett-Packard (HPQ.N) and Lenovo (0992.HK).

(Reporting by S. John Tilak in Bangalore; Editing by Anne Pallivathuckal)