Alibaba Ambitions Signal Deals for Snapchat to Akamai: Real M&A

Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. -- already the most acquisitive Chinese company this year -- is about to be armed with another $8 billion for deals as it seeks to transform itself from an e-commerce site into an Internet behemoth.

Purchases could span mobile applications such as Snapchat Inc., an Internet-television provider like Roku Inc., smaller content studios such as Lions Gate Entertainment Corp. and even cloud-software companies such as Akamai Technologies Inc., according to CM Research. A case can also be made for acquiring Yahoo! Inc., which owns a stake in Alibaba, though other transactions are more likely, said Yahoo shareholder Ironfire Capital LLC.