Chinese firms buys Segway

Segway Inc, a self-balancing electric vehicle maker based in the United States, was sold to its Chinese rival Ninebot Inc, the latter said on Wednesday.

Xiaomi Corp was involved in the buyout as the Beijing-based smartphone maker became a major investor of Ninebot.

Xiaomi, along with Sequoia Capital and two other venture capital firms invested $80 million in Ninebot this month.

The companies did not disclose how much Ninebot spent on Segway.

Gao Lufeng, chief executive of Ninebot, said the purchase included all of Segway's assets, including the patents.

Ninebot was founded in 2012. It is the world's largest vendor by shipment.

Xiaomi CEO Lei Jun indicated the using data of the Ninebot vehicles will be uploaded on Xiaomi handsets. "The products are a part of our ecosystem and Ninebot will fully integrated into the system," Lei said.